All Authority Has Been Given To Me
Introduction
In days gone by it was widely held and accepted that governments would fight wars of conquest. The kings of old would fight not merely to preserve their ground, but would fight to increase the boundaries over which they held dominion. This mode of governmental expansionism is often referred to as imperialism. In previous times, this sort of conflict was expected from kings and nations. Most nations sought to expand their boundaries and to press their advantage in the region around them.
For the average citizen of a nation, imperialism could be a double edged sword. If the conquering nation was a brutal one, then freedoms would be diminished, slaves would be made of the conquered lands and the land, its resources and its people would become the right of the occupying government. This was most often the case. If however, as was the case sometimes, the conquering nation was more concerned with the issues of just rule and authority, then a populous might fare better. For instance, the Roman empire conquered many lands in which their form of government, the freedoms that it provided its citizens, the general prosperity of Rome and its system of government were often preferable to the previous order. If in fact you were a Roman citizen you had rights that no other nation would have even understood to be rights.
If you listen to some, in the last few hundred years, empires have given way to nations, somewhat content to live at peace with their neighbors. With a number of very notable exceptions, the old imperial mentalities have given way to a more pragmatic means of cultural expansion and growth. This is true in the case of the United States and in large part for much of what is defined as the “Western World”. This has happened in our nation to such a degree that the idea of imperialism has become an offensive one. So much so the previous administrations decisions to go to war were often characterized as being “imperialistic”. This despite the fact that neither war ever made any attempts to rule over either land or claim its land or resources. It is safe to say that imperialism has become for us in the west a very bad word.
Fallen Imperialism
It is also a fairly simple point to demonstrate that, having been created in the image of God, we have been created in such a manner as to bare certain characteristics of God. For instance, God’s desire to have dominion over His creation is one of the clear teachings of scripture. Likewise, God chooses to share dominion over some aspects of creation with the preeminent member of His created order; Adam.
We have spoken earlier in this series of the image of God given to Adam in Adam’s creative nature. So too Adam was created with a nature to establish for God a dominion. Adam’s children have corrupted this attribute of mankind’s nature into a viscous and bloody history of barbarism and abuse.
Biblically speaking, imperialism is not always such a dirty word. In fact biblically speaking, we find a number of instances where God used the imperialistic nature of godless kings to discipline Israel for her unfaithfulness. We also see at times as God uses wicked kings to crush the nations around Israel.
Righteous Imperialism?
Being that imperialism as an established pattern of mankind’s behavior has such a negative and ugly history, it will come as a surprise to some that I am about to say that Jesus Himself is an imperialistic King. Additionally, that He is bent on the conquering and subordination of the entire created order and very specifically, the pinnacle of all of God’s creation; mankind.
In part due to the relational or “love” language that is used in scripture of God for His people coupled with a very modern approach and understanding to that same “love” language we as Christians, particularly in America have a hard time seeing Jesus as a conquering and mighty King. We would far prefer a gentleman who politely advertises His salvation and then pleads with the lost to come to Him. This rather than “He commands all people everywhere to repent” – Acts 17:30. Or “do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” – Matthew 10:34 and again: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” – Luke 12:50
Finally, in establishing God’s view of sin and wrath relative to man’s view of his own righteousness Jesus says in Luke 13:3 “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” So much for “Why do you run? Why do you hide, I just want to be with you…” as one modern song writer sings on behalf of God.
And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." – Matthew 28:17-20
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." – Matthew 16:13-19
If Jesus’ kingdom is an imperialistic kingdom, that is a kingdom whose purpose is dominion or the taking of a territory, then we have some questions that need to be answered:
What sort of authority was Jesus’ authority?
Jesus authority was based upon the fact that He is God. Matthew ensures that the context that we see for Jesus words is the worship of Him by the disciples. The disciples have just met Jesus on the mountain to which He had directed them in Galilee. It is very noteworthy what first does not occur. The disciples don’t approach Him as Rabbi and they don’t approach Him as friend, by say: giving Him a hug or something similar. Matthew doesn’t record for us any words that they used in so worshipping Jesus, however it is also noteworthy that they don’t begin to ask Him a lot of questions. The disciples do approach Jesus as God. They respond much like the prophets of old would respond when they found themselves in the presence of God. They worship Him. This word is the same word from which we get our word prostrate, or to lay face down on the ground. In other words, they fall flat on their face before Him. The context here is that the disciples have come expecting to see Jesus the man with whom most have spent the majority of three years of their lives studying under, walking with and whose miracles they have been watching. They have witnessed the man having nails driven through His hands and feet and some among them had prepared His corpse for burial or at the very least watched His lifeless body as it was placed in the tomb. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1 says: and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. His Deity is demonstrated in power by His resurrection and the disciples now see Him much more clearly as God than they did before.
There is no longer between the disciples and Jesus a sense of light heartedness. There is a radical and directed response to Jesus. One that directed at anyone else in all of human history would have been completely inappropriate and sinful; He is their God and they worship Him. They all fall down flat upon their face in prostrate worship. They honor Him as their God and their King. So first we must see that Jesus authority is divine. He is God and the disciples worship Him as such.
It is precisely this context into which Jesus speaks when He says: all authority under heaven and earth has been given to me (18). Jesus draws their attention to the fact that He has been given an authority, a kingdom. This is nothing new to them. He has been saying this since early in His ministry: “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:15. This is nothing new, in that the Holy Spirit has revealed that He is the promised Messiah. We read this when Jesus asks Peter: “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter responds: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” – Matthew 16:6. And again remember the word Messiah or Christ and all that it indicates. It means to the disciples: anointed reigning King and it meant a fulfillment of the governing order that God had promised so long ago. The Messiah was the one who would sit on David’s throne forever. Who would reign in all wickedness and triumph over every human authority. This is the one to whom the disciples now place their faces on the ground and give their worship.
He says: All authority under heaven and earth has been given to me (18). In so doing He points them in this statement to the scope of this authority. They have been expecting this triumphant Messianic reign to begin and are certainly expecting Him to in some way initiate the assault on Rome. So Jesus in effect does them one better. He defines the scope of His reign: under heaven and earth. Jesus is defining for them the territory that He has been given. In saying heaven and earth He is demonstrating to them that the conquest which is to begin is much larger than the national boundaries of Israel. In the Gospel of Mark, the 16th chapter Jesus says: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Jesus realm of authority, this territory that is to be won is the entirety of creation. The disciples are about to see this, as the gospel goes forth in power starting in Jerusalem, then to Judea, Samaria and then begins its course with a man named Cornelius (Acts 10) to the utter most ends of the earth. Jesus here is defining the scope of the assault that the church is about to make. Jesus says: Making disciples of All Nations.
There is a beautiful picture, herein that God in His mercy begins to work with a single man named Abraham. Then over time, His covenant blessing and dominion expands to include Abrahams covenant children, in Isaac and Jacob. Eventually, Abraham becomes a mighty nation encompassing a vast population of people, Israel. Yet they were still small and numerically speaking insignificant relative to the number of the sons of Adam that this world has known. Yet finally, as Jesus is about to ascend to the throne set before Him, He changes the scope of covenant conquest to every people group on the earth, to all nations. So we must also see that the territory that Jesus is taking is all encompassing, it involves members of “every tongue tribe and nation” as the Apostle John is witness to when he is given His revelation.
Who are His Soldiers?
Every imperialistic nation that has ever occurred on this earth has had an armed force of soldiers. That is an army to accomplish the capture and subjugation and establish a ruling authority. In fact, when a coup de ta occurs in a 3rd world nation, typically it is done by the force of members of the military. Kingdoms are established by the blood of their warriors. Jesus Kingdom; the church is no different. At Pentecost, Jesus anoints the church in power for the battle which lies ahead. There again, as the disciples begin to speak in tongues, that is in other languages, Jesus is equipping and preparing His army for conquest. In a sense He is demonstrating in power the scope of what they are about to do. The Gospel is about to go to all people groups on the earth. In Matthew 16 when Jesus asks Peter: “who do you say that I am” and Peter responds appropriately, Jesus says some crucial things, for the church. First He says: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. So the kingdom dominion that is being accomplished is the building of Jesus church. As we learned in our previous study, we are being built into a holy temple for God, each one of us a living stone built upon the cornerstone: Jesus. It is this church that He is fashioning for His glory as a kingdom and it is the church which is being expanded. And it is Jesus through His church that is accomplishing this assault on the earth. Jesus founds the church on Peter, and I believe Peter here is representative of the Apostles in general. That Jesus builds the church on the revelation and initial explosion of the Gospel and its reach that He gives to the Apostles.
What Territory is being Won?
Every nation that is engaged in conquest, the taking of territory, must have a territory that they are taking. Jesus in (16:18) continues: “… and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it (the church)”. So the territory that is being won here is the territory which, in a sense the devil took all the way back in the garden. Though God in His sovereignty allowed the devil such an awful influence over mankind, in the temptation to sin, in the power with which he ruled over the wickedness of men, this dominion has ended. Paul says of believers and of the “power of the Prince of the air” in Ephesians 2:1 – 2: “and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” So this dominion, marked by this spirit of disobedience is the territory which is being conquered by Jesus and His church. Gates don’t assault something. A gate is a stationary device used in ancient times to protect a walled city or a kingdom. So it is that we see that the church is assaulting the gates of Satan’s dominion. What a joyous promise Jesus gives us here: That in this battle, the gates won’t be victorious. He will, through His church, win the victory over the dominion of Satan and will lead a mighty and a vast people to His victory over sin and death.
So we must see the nature of those whom Jesus is seeking to win for His kingdom as those who are currently in bondage to the prince of the power of the air. There is no seeker sensitive or market based appeal that will break this bondage. Christ in the power of His Holy Spirit must free them. If He does not regenerate them, then there is no strategy or tactic that will break them from the sway of the enemy and from their own wicked flesh.
What are His weapons?
Every nation that is engaged in a war of conquest uses weapons with which to wage war. Jesus too, has given us weapons. Unlike the weapons of an earthly kingdom: the sword, the machine gun or bombs, the weapons are His weapons, they are empowered by Him to accomplish His purpose. Now these weapons are not weapons that would appear to have any strength in the minds of earthly kings. When one desires to bring a people under subjugation, one thinks about military strength. Islam for instance, a very earthly religion, in its corruption of these Biblical concepts could not grasp the necessity of the power of God unto salvation as the means by which people are brought into submission to a king. Therefore, the Islamic notion of the promulgation of its religion and world view is at the edge of a sword we see this with atheistic communism as well. But in stark contrast are Jesus’ words in Matthew 28: “Making disciples”. A disciple is a student who studies under the instruction and leading of his teacher. And again Jesus in Mark 16 says: “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel”. Paul describes this weapon in the first chapter of Romans 1:16 when he says of the Gospel: “for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...” And again in Acts chapter 1 Jesus says that the disciples are to be His witnesses. That is that we are to testify to Jesus and His completed work. Paul describes this Gospel repeatedly but clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:3 when he says: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received; that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Jesus also says in Matthew 28: Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is precisely what we find the apostles doing throughout Acts and in their letters to the church. That is proclaiming and expounding on the Gospel. How could our weapons be anything less? The lost don’t need to hear our testimony of transformation. This may be helpful, this may be encouraging for the wavering. But that’s not what they need. The lost don’t need us to attempt to pass legislation which thus prevents them from acting on their nature and violating God’s laws. The lost don’t primarily need us to show them how Jesus can repair the psychological hurts and anguish brought on by the abuses of this current age. They don’t need a weight-loss program built on “success principles” from Scripture. But what they MUST hear and WE MUST hear is the weapon that Jesus has given His church: the Gospel. This is Jesus’ primary weapon of war. And it is His charge, His command to us that we proclaim it. Again, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
He gives us a second weapon in this verse. It is directly tied to the first. That is the covenant seal of baptism. I have agreed not to speak in this study of particular aspects of my interpretation from the Bible of the covenant seal of baptism. So I will leave it at this: that the early church, throughout Acts, made a huge deal of baptism. We don’t read of conversions in Acts whereupon those converted aren’t then subsequently baptized. Could it be that so few people actually come to faith in the person and the working of Jesus Christ that we are so unfamiliar with seeing it actually take place that we have almost forgotten it as a cherished and a prized gift? To be brought into the covenant family of God, the church. Have we forgotten what it is to make a public confession of our need of the washing of our sins and to be joined with Jesus death so as to die to our sins?
So we must see that the primary weapon of this conquest is the proclamation of the Gospel. Our tank, our battleship, our jet fighter is nothing less than the Holy Spirit empowered good news that Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God for all who would believe.
Now there are some who would say, what about prayer? That’s a weapon! And it is! Absolutely, but the primary weapon that Jesus has ordained to accomplish His purpose as He takes dominion over this fallen and wicked world, IS the good news. Without the proclamation of this Good News, our prayer is rather like a foot soldier crying out to his general: Please attack the enemy! And yet, the general Himself, as He prepared to ascend to His mighty throne gave us our marching orders: Make disciples, proclaim the good news, teach them to observe what I commanded you and baptize them. We are, if we are truly His church, an imperialistic army that is seeking to accomplish the will and the purpose of our great King.
What greater privilege could He have given us, then to enter in to this effort with Him? That He would take His enemies and reform them and set them into action on His behalf. What greater privilege could we ask then to be included in this most victorious of causes? If you are in Christ today, and He is your King and you have bowed your knee to Him, then you have been given such a glorious gift: to take this Good and gracious News to a wicked and undeserving world. To take the blood of Jesus to those for whom it was meant.
Where is our King in all of this?
Jesus says: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” So He has given us, the church the scope of His authority as God and King. He has given us His charge to go out and assail the gates of hell, this dark and wicked age, to win many to Him. He has given us the weapons and the tools of conquest: the Gospel, baptism in the name of the Triune God and discipleship in His word. So He and His completed work are the subject of that which we are to proclaim, but He doesn’t leave us alone. What a glorious promise He gives us here: “I am with you”. He says: BEHOLD, look and see, I am with you, always! Jesus says that He is building His church and His church is assailing this wicked world with the Gospel. And it is He, through His Spirit and the power of His Spirit that is accomplishing this. He is with us. He is the power behind the proclamation of His Gospel. As Peter, an uneducated fisherman proclaims Jesus in power to the Jews at Pentecost and then in the temple and then before the Jewish council, Jesus is with Him. As Stephen speaks the Gospel to those wicked men who would shortly stone him, including one who would be used mightily of the Living Christ, Jesus is with Him. As Peter is thrown repeatedly into prison for the Gospel, Jesus is with Him. As the saints of old were fed to the lions for roman sport because of their proclamation of the Gospel, Jesus was with them. Again He is with us as we seek to faithfully accomplish His charge, this in power, giving us hope, sanctifying us and sending us out.
So we have seen Jesus as our Savior. The one who took away our sins and justified us, that is He made us right with God. We have seen Jesus as our Sanctifier as He regenerated us by the Spirit, as He causes us to walk in newness of life and His glorious image into which we are being transformed. We have seen Jesus as the power of the resurrection, the one who will one day lead us to glory as we are raised to everlasting life. We have seen Jesus as the one who will restore all of the created order to glory under His dominion. And now we have seen Jesus as our King, the founding member of the church and the one whose banner we raise high as we, the church, go forth to the nations.
We must see that Jesus is with us. We must see that His kingdom must and will be victorious as He destroys the kingdom of darkness and leads many sons to glory, through His church. Let us do away with lesser Christianity. Let us do as we are commanded and pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send more harvesters. Let us do away with a small gospel and take Jesus in by His word and sacrament and through prayer and behold Him as glorious, that we might take Him out in the good news that is power of God unto salvation, for all who believe.
Come Lord Jesus!
