Gooding, David: 1 - The Gospel of Authority

Let us begin, therefore, by reading in the gospel by Matthew yet again, and in those well-known words that end chapter seven and verse twenty eight. For he, uh, sorry, verse twenty eight: and it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, not as their scribe. And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Verse eighteen. Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And there came a scribe and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And another of the disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus saith unto him, Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. And when he was entered into a boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. And they came to him and awoke him, saying, Save, Lord, we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two possessed with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man could pass by that way. And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? Now there was a far off from them a herd of many swine feeding. And the demons besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And they came out and went into the swine, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea and perished in the waters. And they that fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything and what was befallen to them that were possessed with demons. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart from their borders, and he entered into a boat and crossed over. God give us good understanding of his holy word. When one turns to consider discipleship to our blessed Lord, there are two ideas that are absolutely basic and necessary to the topic. And the two ideas stand together as the two sides of a coin stand together. You cannot have one without the other. And the first truth that stands, the first principle that stands in this topic of discipleship is, of course, the authority of the Lord Jesus. And then, if we have well established the authority of the Lord Jesus on his side, then on our side there follows the principle that makes up discipleship, which is the principle of following the Lord Jesus. On his side, authority, on our side to follow, on his side to command, on our side to go where he says. These then are the twin basic principles to all discipleship, and I want us first of all just to turn over the pages to notice how Matthew weaves these basic principles through the narratives that he now brings before us. Did you notice in chapter seven when we read in verse twenty nine, that the multitudes, having listened to his teaching, were struck by one thing preeminently? They were, he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribe. It is a mark, of course, it was ever a mark of our Lord's teaching. And still today, if we are doing our task in our day and generation, we must know the authority of the word of the Lord. We mayn't lose our nerve in the authority of our book. For if the authority of Holy Scripture and its teaching is undermined, then in proportion as that authority is lost, so will the quality of our discipleship and our following suffer. Or again, we look to the story that is told us in ver- chapter eight, verses five following, where the centurion comes to our Lord Jesus, and he says in verse nine, For I also am a man under authority, and I say to this one, go, and he goeth, and to the other, come, and he cometh. Or if you care to turn over the page to chapter nine, you will hear Matthew emphasize the matter again. Chapter nine and verse six says our Lord Jesus to the crowd, but that you may know that the Son of Man hath... But then notice that word, it may read differently in your translation. It may say that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, but it is in fact the same word and means that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And not content with that, Matthew records in verse eight, and when the multitude saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, which had given such, and once more it is the same word, which had given such authority unto men. Now, it so happens, of course, that Mark tells this same story, and Luke likewise tells this same story, but if you read it, when they describe the reaction of the crowd, they put it slightly differently. It is Matthew that, when he gives us the reaction of the crowd, tells us that among the many things that impressed them in this miracle was the authority that God had given to man. And then we shall notice, uh, on another occasion, of course, chapter ten and verse one. Let's just notice the phrase this evening. And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and he gave them Them authority. authority. Just let me repeat, therefore, what I have said. I am not encouraging any of us to become authoritarian. That wouldn't do, would it? That smacks of being Victorian and all sorts of terrible things. But there is, in my humble experience, a need in this troubled modern world for men and women that can speak with authority. When Holy Scripture is so undermined and its authority undermined, and people are, as our Lord observed, like sheep going astray, not having a shepherd, the first thing that is necessary is a sense of authority, of course, does not reside in us. We are but channels, but here in chapter ten, you observe that the Lord Jesus, as he sent out his disciples, he delegated to them authority. The ship will get nowhere unless there is some authority behind the hand that holds the rubber. But if the, if the Lord's authority and the authority that he delegates to his disciples and church is the one side of this story, the other side, of course, is our response to his authority, and that is that we follow the Lord Jesus. Indeed, that is what is meant by being a disciple, a learner, who, in order to learn, follows the Lord Jesus and hears what he has to say. And having followed him and heard what he has to say, then follows his teaching in a deeper sense. Let's notice how Matthew develops that theme too through these chapters. When he came down from the mountain, says chapter eight verse one, great multitudes followed him, as was natural. And at this stage, it merely means, doesn't it, that they physically followed him down the mountainside as he came down from the mountain out to the plain. And then in verse 18 and nineteen, as he was about to depart to the other side, there came a scribe and said, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The fox has had holes, and so forth. Yes, and still the man was thinking in terms of physically following the Lord Jesus wherever he went. But as presently we shall see, our Lord replied in terms that indicated that following the Lord Jesus is more than just physically follow him down the street or across a sea. There is a deeper sense in which we follow the Lord Jesus on a journey, which journey has no goal on earth. A journey in which you will never lay your head down here on earth, nor will you ever until you come to another world. And then, of course, uh, uh, our Lord said to another in verse twenty two, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. So that verse twenty three says, and when he was entered into a boat, his disciples followed him, which is a very natural thing for disciples to do, and of course it is a typical thing. That is what disciples do, and if if people don't do it, they're not disciples, are they? His disciples followed. But oh, what a delightful thing it is. For following, being a disciple of this master doesn't mean that he commands you to do what he doesn't do himself. It is a question always of following him, and he goes in front. Or again, shall we notice, you see, in chapter nine and verse nine, as Jesus passed by from thence, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the place of Tal, and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And perhaps the reason why Matthew speaks to us so much about discipleship and following the Lord is because that's how he got converted. I don't know how you got converted. Was it, uh, he that believeth hath everlasting life? Or was it he that heareth my word shall not perish, but has everlasting life? That's how you got converted. I dare say that colors all your preaching ever since. But Matthew got converted by the authority of the word that came to him, follow me. And it left its mark on him for the rest of his days. He hadn't got the concept that being a Christian means that you are saved from hell, and that's all right, and it doesn't matter how you behave. Our salvation, Matthew meant an authority that broke the chains that chained him to his very doubtful occupation of being a quizzing tax gatherer and set him free to follow the Lord Jesus. Here is the story of a man's conversion, which reminds us, of course, that discipleship isn't an optional extra. Sometimes preached like that, isn't it? That there are two things. One is you get saved. Well, that's jolly good. And when you got used to being saved, then little by little the preachers gently introduce you to another idea, deluxe edition. You could, if you like, take it a little bit further. Of course, you don't have to, but if you'd like to, there's a something called being a disciple. And sometimes we're afraid to preach otherwise because we think if we made it too strong to begin with, nobody would start. There is no such thing as being saved and not being a A disciple. disciple. See, Matthew tells you what's involved in conversion. Follow me, said Christ to the unconverted Matthew. And Matthew got up, a believer, and he followed him. We do well to keep our gospel preaching balanced and. So that we let folks see that right from the very start, it is a question of the Lord's authority and following the Lord Jesus. Ah, but there's more than in it than just being converted, of course. Look at chapter nine and verse nineteen. Uh, sorry, uh, yeah, well, verse nineteen if you like, the as Jairus comes, he bids the Lord Jesus come to his house to lay his hand upon her daughter, his daughter, because she is even now dead. And Jesus arose and followed him. Do you know that's sometimes a dangerous thing to do? You have a need, some particular worry, and you come to the Lord Jesus and you say, now Lord, come and deal with my need. And the Lord begins to follow you, but you want to watch it, because he doesn't do that very long, not follow you. Yes, he'll let you take him to your need, whatever your need is. But presently you'll find he isn't following anymore. He's going on in front and bidding you follow him, and he'll take you right beyond your need. Because he's not just interested in helping us with the need that we see. He has plans ahead for us and ideas that we haven't yet grasped, and he won't be content until he has conformed us to his own image. So our Lord began to follow him, and he went. But now notice what is told us later on in verse twenty seven of chapter nine. and as Jesus passed by from thence, two blind men followed him. And how difficult it was. All the way down the road. As these poor chap blind, and they went feeling their way down the road, where's he got to now? And so they listened to his voice, and for a while that guided them, and then that went quiet, and they know where he got to. And then they found out he got into a house. Have you ever been trying to follow the Lord, and then everything went silent, you didn't know where the Lord had got to. And you felt blind, and you were groping your way along, and you missed all your landmarks, and the Lord seemed to be playing games with you. Ah, but there are lessons to be learned on the path of discipleship, not merely at conversion, but all the way along the road, home, of course, to glory. So then Matthew is talking to us about discipleship and the twin ideas that lie behind discipleship, the authority of the Lord Jesus on the one hand, and the following of the disciple on the other. Now, as I said earlier, sometimes when we talk about discipleship, we are inclined to talk about discipleship as though it was something very severe, and thus contrast it with the gospel. The gospel we represent as being something lovely, delightful, comforting, rich, free, and that's the bait with which we attract the unconverted. And then, of course, after you've had the nice bit, here comes the nasty bit. You know, like it used to be at school, like in school, and they tricked you, oh, it was terrible. They started off with beautiful stories, yeah, and toys and things. Marvelous. And they gave you the idea that this was what, uh, school was going to be like. And the horrible types, when they got you hooked on that, then they sent you arithmetic and other such abominations, you see? Ha! And now you found out along with the nice, you had to take the nasty. Horrible it was. And sometimes we talk about discipleship like that, don't we? The gospel is all free and it's glorious and it's wonderful, marvelous. And then there comes this painful business of discipleship. But Matthew doesn't make that mistake. Oh, dear me now. And in the chapter that is before us tonight, chapter eight, let me just briefly indicate that it is in two parts. And the first part deals with what you might describe quite fairly as the gospel of authority. The gospel of authority. And the second part will deal, of course, with the path of discipleship, the demands of discipleship. The gospel of authority. What do we mean by that? Well, says Matthew, as our Lord Jesus came down from the mountain, the multitudes followed him. He taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. So as he came down the mountain, they followed. And what would his authority be like? What is the nature of the Lord's authority? Well, if you went to Moscow tonight and could get hold of Master Andropov and said, Andropov, old boy, I gather you are a very powerful man, good sir. You and your fellows in the Kremlin. I wonder what I would, uh, whether you would do something for me. I wonder whether tomorrow, being May the first, you would, uh, give me a demonstration of your authority. Suppose Master Andropov, uh, consented, being made a first, uh, to do you an exhibition of his authority. What do you suppose he'd do? Well, he'd get out, if not crews and Persians. Ha. He would get out all the other kind of things he'd got and have them on big trailers coming through Red Square, wouldn't he? And he would say, there you are, my boy, you'll do what I say, or... And the authority of the Lord Jesus, what is it like? Pray, Matthew, give us a demonstration of the Lord's authority and its nature. I will, says Matthew. There came a leper. What did our Lord say to him? You filthy man, get yourself clean, will you? Or if you don't, don't you come anywhere near me. Get yourself clean, man. Make yourself clean. Or else God will banish you from his heaven forever. No, he didn't say that. He said, I will be thou clean and tell the man to make himself clean. But he made the man clean. That was something new, wasn't it? The law said, make yourself clean. Christ cleaned the man. It's a big difference, isn't there? Let's put it another way. The law said dirt, uncleanness will not do. The law said that if a man were unclean through leprosy, he must be banished. What did Christ say to that? I know, let's get this straight, because some modern preachers, some modern theorists would say that that old law was too severe, you know, and now we must modify it. Cruel law. Man was unclean and fancy banishing him. No, let's say nowadays it doesn't matter so much. And all kinds of dirt and perversion, well, they used to be called sin. Used to be said that they would pervert society if it were allowed. But now we must take a, a kindlier attitude to it and say it doesn't matter. That isn't what our Lord said. But presently we shall see he upheld the law. For it were foolish sentiment, were it not, to say uncleanness doesn't matter. You want to keep society clean, then you must banish uncleanness. And to say uncleanness doesn't matter is to corrupt the whole of society. Our Lord, of course, he did not undermine the law, but at the same time, he didn't just stand there and say, now therefore clean yourself out. Observe his authority. By his word and power, he had the authority to make the man clean. Oh, what a gospel it is. This is a gospel of authority. Remember, pray, what Paul said to the Corinthians, that filthy lot of folks. Such were some of you. I feel washed, cleansed, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. The gospel of authority. The gospel of authority, yes, uh, as you perceive in the centurion. The centurion was very good at commanding his troops. I mean, that was his job. He knew how to do it. He said to this chap, go there, and he went, and he said to this other fellow, come here, and he came, and he said to someone else, do this, and he did it, and he said to this other chap, go and do something, and he didn't do it. Why didn't he? Because he couldn't. Paralyzed. What would you say was the thing to do with him then? You say, well, let him lie abed and be merciful to his weakness. No No solution solution, is is he? easy. If a man would be whole, he must be able to answer and do the command. And our Lord shows the gospel of his authority that he came along, and when he said to the, uh, man, get up, then it wasn't only a command to get up, but with the power there was in, uh, with the command there was imparted the power to do it. And so it was, uh, when he came into Simon Peter's house and his wife's mother lay sick of a fever, turning all around about the place in restless fashion, and he showed his authority. He said, woman, don't sss... fuss. Had all the morning, haven't you, to get the done dinner ready? Can't you do a little thing like that? What are you getting all fussed up about? Now put yourself together, woman. No, he didn't. When Jesus saw her, he touched her hand. And And somehow somehow... the authority and calm of his person transmitted itself to the woman, and she was calmed and fit to serve. The gospel of authority that can still my fevered nerves and bring me calm to do my job. This is not law, is it? There's nothing to be ashamed of. This is gospel that there's come a savior with authority to deliver me. And so Matthew quotes to us, doesn't he, uh, those lovely words from Isaiah as he sums up this passage that deals with the gospel of our Lord's authority. He says, you know, well, that's just like Isaiah said, himself took our infirmities and he bare our diseases. That is, he carried them. The nature of his authority is this, that the king himself, with all his authority, lowered his shoulder and put it under our weaknesses and under our burdens, and he carried them. What a lovely thing that is. For all of us are broken in some way or another. All of us are weak in some way or another and defiled. We need somebody with authority against sin, with authority against weakness, with authority against fevered distress, who can come with his strong shoulder and put it underneath our weakness and underneath our disability and carry it. Let's pause just for a moment and ask ourselves one other question before we, um, uh, uh, go further. Authority, the gospel of authority. But you know there must have been many people in Israel, don't you think there were? Who looked a little bit askance on this Jesus of Nazareth, getting all the young folks and older folks around him. Wasn't ordained. And wasn't he a bit of a quack? What would he do with these folks? He carted off with Peter and the man left his job. That didn't seem a very balanced and sane thing to do. Um, yeah. We forget, don't we? But the world then was like the world is now. If your daughter had been carted off by Master Moon and joined the Moonies. You say, but don't you con- don't you compare Jesus Christ with the Moonies? I wasn't going to. But all I'm saying is that to some of the scribes and Pharisees, that's precisely how Jesus Christ appeared. An heretic. Getting the confidence of people and carting them off. I wonder how side you would have been on if you would have been there. Would you have said, yes, his authority is of God, or would you have put a very big question mark over this business of Jesus Christ going around and getting various women, folks, and others are following him around Palestine, and some of them leaving their jobs, and... How do you tell true authority from false authority? And you know, the problems are with us still, aren't they? In the bad old wicked days, oh, forgive my terminology. Now, sometimes in the cause of discipleship and following the Lord Jesus, in the course of the centuries, systems have been built up. You think of the medieval system in which every man had, uh, a spiritual advisor, and he had to come and confess everything to the spiritual advisor, and the advisor told him what to do. I have myself in recent times, in recent years, not quite now, about ten years ago, been in Spain, and young converts would come to me and they would say, now I want to please, I want to ask some questions. And as they sat down, they say, now I want you to understand I do everything you say. The years of that method has induced in them that attitude. That was what used to beat them out of them. Those days are in some quarters happily passing away, and only to arise in other quarters. For in our own province, are there not evangelical groups nowadays that have developed a kind of a pyramid system? You have your advisor, and everything in your life is controlled by him. You must tell him everything he tells you what to do. And about him is another care, and about him is somebody in America. And they'll tell you what to do about your university, and they'll tell your young daughter whether she may stay in Belfast for a university or go to the other side for a university. And you have to obey those supposed authorities. Ha, that's a big problem, isn't it? How do you recognize true authority? And for his contemporaries, of course, his contemporaries not believing that he was the son of God incarnate. His contemporaries would have eyed him to see whether his authority was of God or not. And what were the marks of the authority? We can just go over, and of course, in one sense, they're the same lessons that we have already seen. Number one, there were the priests. What evidence could they have that Jesus Christ was of God? One, he upheld their law. If he was in business, if they were in business to maintain the cleanliness of that nation. And the law of God. Our Lord never once lowered the standards. He did not, I repeat, tell the leper that uncleanness did not matter. In order to curry favor with the people, he upheld the authority of God's holy word, the authority of his laws of cleanliness. Ah, but then he did more. He cleansed the leper, and then he didn't say to the leper, now leper, my man, you're clean, I love you? That old law thing bothering. That wasn't good. And he said, now young man, now man, you are to go back to the priest and show yourself to the priest for a testimony to the priest, because the priest would need, wouldn't he, that this authority was genuine. Now the priest stood against uncleanness. All he could do was to banish it. Here comes a once-time leper, and Jesus has cleansed him. Well, if the priest believes that uncleanness is wrong, he must believe cleanness is right, doesn't he? Well, if his job is to banish uncleanness, how can he object? Then our Lord has cleaned the man. It was our Lord's power then to make men clean. That is number one advertisement that his power is true. Secondly, how do I know our Lord's authority is true? Well, how does it work? There came this Gentile centurion, and he said, Lord, uh, you just speak the word, and my servant shall be healed. And he spoke the word, and the man was healed, and our Lord Jesus turned around to make a, a, a comment, didn't he? I've not found so great faith, he said, no, not in Israel. And for that reason, he said, I'm telling you now that there shall come many from the east and the west, and they shall sit down in the great banquet of the coming day, and the Israelites themselves be cast out. What a pity, you say. And why should the Israelites be cast out? Well, there was Christ in their midst, and he had the authority. They didn't recognize it. They hadn't the faith. And now I want to say something, uh, very straight. He would not impose himself on them. Whether you profited from his authority or you didn't depended on your faith. You Calvinists here present, I respect you very much. I half believe you most of the week. But the other half of the week, I do believe what I find in scripture, that God will never take away a man's free will. And it depends on whether a man wills to believe or not. That is the nature of true authority. And I say it, it's extreme way of saying it, isn't it, you see, but this will provoke the Calvinists. God will leave it open to you, whether you be in his heaven or not. He will not force you. And any system of authority that turns itself into a tyranny and forces people is not of God. Even our Lord leaves it to the individual's faith. And said Saint Paul on another occasion, as he was thinking of a very disobedient church in Corinth, he said, I write these things to you, not that I am master of your faith, for by faith you stand. The authority of Christ on our side always allows the freedom of our faith. And finally, his, uh, his authority was biblical, wasn't it? Says Matthew, do you see him healing the crowd? That's the pattern of authority that Matthew puts in, that Isaiah puts in front of you. Even as it is written, he himself carried our sickness and he bore our sorrow. That's the biblical pattern of the exercise of authority. Some years later, Saint Paul himself was hurrying by on his way to Jerusalem, and he passed by Miletus, but he couldn't pass it by altogether, and he stopped at Miletus, and he called for the elders of the church from Ephesus. He said, gentlemen, your task is going to be very difficult. Caring for the flock of God against the wolves that come from the outside and the perverse men from the inside. How would they show their authority and maintain their authority? Well, says Paul, I'd not shun to, uh, uh, to you in Ephesus to declare the whole counsel of God. It is a temptation on the one side, isn't there, to carry a favor with the people by soft-pedaling certain doctrines. Yeah. And they like you if you preach the easy doctrine, and they won't like you so much if you preach the hard doctrines, see. So soft-pedal the, the, the unpopular doctrines, and you'll get a support. No, says Paul, I've not shunned to declare the whole lot. Now, when he comes to the end, he says, and now, brethren, uh, mind looking at my hands. I've left you an example. You know, that's what the Lord said, it's more blessed to give than receive. And I've done that. I work with my own hands to supply my own needs and the needs of my team, and to be able to give to others. And if you an example, so serving and helping the we, that you remember the words of the Lord Jesus, it is more blessed to give than to receive. That's the pattern of biblical authority, of a man who declares the whole counsel of God, and then puts his shoulder underneath the weak, by his own work, to carry them. The gospel of authority. Of course, there is a discipline side, isn't there? The path of discipleship that follows from that. But of that we better talk next week.