Tag Archives: authority

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM

April 3, 2020Bible Studyauthority, greatest, servantLuella Campbell

UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM

“Within minutes they were bickering over who of them would end up the greatest. But Jesus intervened. ‘Kings like to throw their weight around and people in authority like to give themselves fancy titles. It’s not going to be that way with you. Let the senior among you become like the junior; let the leader act the part of the servant.'” Luke 22:24-26.

Would they ever learn? Three years with Jesus, watching, listening and even imitating Him had not yet convinced them that He had no intention of overthrowing Roman occupation and setting up a renewed Davidic kingdom. What more did He need to do to get the message past their misplaced expectations.

Vying for position in His kingdom was an old story. It cropped up regularly and now that it was becoming clear to them that this new kingdom was just around the corner, it became even more urgent that they sort out who would occupy the most important positions in Jesus’ “cabinet” – or so they thought.

How patient Jesus was! Once again He had to explain to non-comprehending, thick-skulled, ambitious, so-called “disciples” that His kingdom was not just another earthly system to control and regulate people, not even one as glorious as the kingdoms of David and Solomon. He was operating in a realm which functioned deep within the inner workings of human beings, exposing the source of the unseen power that influenced them to be who they were.

He had come to take back the authority and power to return His estranged people to fellowship with the God who had created them and designed them to be mirror images of Him. Satan had derailed God’s plan by deception but, by giving His own life as a payment for man’s going astray, Jesus was on the brink of restoring man to God and putting him back on course to compete the Father’s plan.

This was the kingdom He was talking about, but this kingdom’s values were the opposite of the values subscribed to by the world’s systems. At His trial, Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ and Jesus replied, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ John 18:33, 36 (NIV).

So what does God’s kingdom look like?

Firstly, it a system that rules by choice, not force, by obedience, not coercion and by truth, not deception. We are in it because we chose to believe the truth and God responded by supernaturally setting us free from our slavery to the devil and relocating us to His kingdom which He rules by truth and love. Every time we choose to obey God, His Holy Spirit enables us to do what we have chosen to do.

Secondly, the values of God’s kingdom reflect His nature and are opposite to the world’s ways. As Jesus had painstakingly taught them, true greatness lies, not in lording it over people but in serving them. He showed them how by giving His life for them. Our needs are met when we meet the needs of others; we receive by giving; we live by dying; we are happy when we make others happy; we find life by losing it; we lead by following. It all becomes real when we “just do it”.

The disciples did not get it until after Jesus’ death and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, who did exactly what Jesus promised He would do. When He took up residence inside them, He brought into sharp focus everything Jesus had taught them. All the seeds of His word which had lain dormant in their hearts sprang to life and began to grow and bear fruit.

As believers, we have to swim against the current of world systems where power lies in force. The power of God works within in us, changing us as we believe and respond to His truth and choose to follow and obey Jesus. Eternal life is a dynamic partnership between ourselves and God, drawing us into union with Jesus and teaching us how to be sons of God.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – BY WHAT POWER?

March 14, 2019Bible Studyauthority, God-power, man-powerLuella Campbell

BY WHAT POWER?

“The next day a meeting was called in Jerusalem. The rulers, religious leaders, religion scholars, Annas the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander — everybody who was anybody was there. They stood Peter and John in the middle of the room and grilled them: ‘Who put you in charge here? What business do you have doing this?'” Acts 4:5-7 (The Message).

Get the picture? All the religious ‘who’s who’ in Jerusalem, in full regalia and in all their blustering authority, confronted the apostles who had done something they did not authorise. Man-power and God-power go head to head. Which one is God going to back?

We must remember, according to the teaching of the Apostles Paul and Peter, that the governing authorities are ordained by God and delegated by Him to maintain order in society. Therefore, no matter what they do, God backs the government because He put them there. But, of course, He also holds them accountable for what they do because He makes the rules and, if they do not uphold and obey them, they are culpable.

But now Jesus has put a spanner in the works. He came to re-establish God’s kingdom on earth. This kingdom takes precedence over the kingdoms of the world. He commissioned His disciples to announce this kingdom and invite people to enter it by way of faith in Him through His sacrificial death. This kingdom is one of righteousness, joy, peace and power in the Holy Spirit which they had just demonstrated by healing a crippled man.

The kingdom of God is not about maintaining order. It’s about restoring everything that is broken. Broken bodies, broken spirits, broken lives, broken relationships, broken hopes, broken dreams, everything broken by the Fall stands in line for the power of God to restore. What happened to the crippled beggar and what happens to millions of people around the world is a foretaste of the final and complete restoration of all things when Jesus returns to finish what He began.

Who does God back in this conflict? The apostles, of course! The religious hierarchy threw all the power they had at the apostles but it could never match the power of God. It was His determined purpose to set up His kingdom in the hearts of men. He was revealing the true nature of the King by healing hearts and bodies. No threats, intimidation, persecution or imprisonment could stop His emissaries from delivering the message to whoever would receive it.

Even if they lost their lives in the process, they had nothing to lose. Death held no fear for them because Jesus had conquered death and delivered them from its terror, as Paul said, “‘for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.'” Philippians 2:21 (NIV).

What these poor benighted religious leaders did not realise was that the apostles were actually supporting them in their role as governing authorities. Every new member of God’s kingdom signed on to be law-abiding citizens of the state as well as obedient children of God. They should have been rejoicing and supporting the apostles instead of opposing them and shutting them up in jail.

Such is the nature of deception! What the religious leaders wanted was not true allegiance to God but the power to control the hearts and consciences of people; and they were losing it. They were determined to control at any price – even resorting to murder again as they had tried to get rid of Jesus. Would they never learn!

To try to oppose God is as foolish as trying to empty the ocean with a thimble. Not even the most powerful civil authority or religious force can prevent God from achieving His goal. Hitler tried and lost. Communism tried and failed.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 14:15b (NIV),

is the triumphant cry of heaven.

Who Do You Say That I Am?

February 3, 2016Christian Lifeauthority, disciple, head and body, Torah, walk with JesusLuella Campbell

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

Hello to all my faithful readers. We have come to the end of yet another Bible study series, this time on Ephesians. “Where now?” I asked. What can I share with you that will be of practical value for you in your walk with Jesus?

Let’s talk about being disciples of Jesus.

The church, in the main, has not understood what it means to be a disciple or, if it has, it has slowly, over the centuries, veered off course until today we have, in the main, an institutionalised kind of religion that stands alongside and tries to complete with other world religions. It has missed what Jesus intended when He came from the Father – to reveal the true nature of the Father to His people, to take us to the Father and to teach us to follow Him so that we can also be true sons of the Father.

To do this, He chose the rabbi/disciple model which was the way of passing on the knowledge and way of life of one generation to the next among the people of God.

Jesus called twelve men to be His disciples. In His day, being the disciple of a rabbi was an honoured calling. Rabbis in Israel were essentially roaming (called “peripatetic”) teachers who moved about from place to place engaging people in debates about the meaning and application of the Torah.

Those who were recognised to have authority, called sh’mikah, developed their own “yoke”, their way of understanding and applying the Torah according to what they believed was God’s intention. They gathered around them a group of men whom they chose from the Beth Talmid, the school of young men who aspired to become rabbis. They chose those whom they believed would become like them and would do even more than they did.

Jesus did not choose His disciples from those who aspired to be recognised teachers. He went to the lake and chose fishermen, a tax collector, and other ordinary men who had no designs on becoming rabbis. In fact, it was not His intention to train them to be rabbis but rather messengers – men who would replicate Him so accurately that they would carry Him and His yoke to the rest of the world.

On one occasion a ‘teacher of the law’ came to Jesus with the request to follow Him (Mat. 8:20). Jesus’ response seems almost like a rebuff.

Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

Commentators have invented some ‘weird and wonderful’ interpretations of Jesus’ words, simply because they have not understood the way Hebrews think. We would take Jesus’ words literally, thinking that He meant that He was poor; He had nowhere to lay His head. Not so Jesus. Those who heard Him would ask the question, “What do foxes do in dens; what do bird do in nests?” The answer, of course, is that they don’t sleep in dens and nests; they reproduce.

What did Jesus mean? At that moment, He was the head but He did not yet have a body on which to ‘lay’ His head to reproduce Himself in the world. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the assembled believers, the church was born, which is His body. From that time on, He as the head, worked through His body, the church, to reveal Himself to the world. Those who wanted to be His disciples at that moment needed to wait until His work on the cross was complete and the Holy Spirit had come to indwell His body to replicate Him in them and fill them with His life.

Jesus took His disciples to Israel’s “red light” district in the region of Caesarea Philippi where pagans worshipped the goat-god Pan by having intercourse with goats. It was in this disgusting environment that He asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”

The first step for anyone who would be a disciple of Jesus is to be convinced of His identity. Who is He? Who did He claim to be? How did He authenticate His claims? Is He who He said He is?

Peter answered for the rest, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He may not have understood all of the implications of his confession but one thing is sure. Jesus accepted his testimony as the truth and a revelation from God. It would take many more experiences for Peter to understand the full implication of what he had just said, including the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and culminating in the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

Until the would-be disciple comes to that unshakeable conviction that Jesus is the Son of God. it is impossible to be His disciple.

Impasse!

August 9, 2015Bible Studyauthority, heaven, John's baptism, religious leadersLuella Campbell

IMPASSE!

They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to Him. ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked Him. ‘And who gave you the authority to do this?’ Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!’

They discussed it among themselves and said, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” then He will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, “Of human origin,” (they feared the people, for everyone held that John was really a prophet).

So they answered Jesus, ‘We don’t know.’ Jesus said, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’ (Mark 11: 27-33).

“By what authority?” the religious leaders demanded. That was the burning question. S’mikah! No rabbi was permitted to make pronouncements regarding the understanding and interpretation of the Torah, the Law of Moses unless he had s’mikah, official recognition that he had authority to do so. From where did this s’mikah come? In the case of all other rabbis who had authority, it was conferred on them by those who had authority.

Jesus was continually a puzzle both to the religious leaders and the general public because He spoke and acted with authority like no other. Those with s’mikah would add to the top-heavy interpretations already recognised as authoritative. Jesus, on the other hand, swept aside everything the rabbis before Him had said and went back to God’s original intention, focussing on God’s mercy rather than on legalistic requirements.

What the merchants and money-changers were doing in the temple courts was blatantly evil, but they did it with the sanction of the religious hierarchy because it was another way of lining their pockets. These men should not have even needed to ask who gave Him the authority to drive out the wicked men. Without all the additions from the rabbis, the Torah said it was wrong to steal. But the religious leaders made it an issue of authority so that they could have a valid reason to indict Jesus. If He were acting without s’mikah, they could deal with it legally.

But Jesus was far too smart for them. It was legitimate for Him to answer a question with a question. This was a recognised rabbinic teaching method. On many occasions He had openly declared the origin of His authority. It came from the Father who sent Him. John the Baptist, whose s’mikah was acknowledged by the people, was a human witness to Jesus’ authority, as was the Father and the Holy Spirit at His baptism. Now He demanded to know whether they accepted the authority of John to baptise Him or not. Ceremonial washing was the act of officially conferring s’mikah on one whose authority was recognised.

They were caught! If they said, “Yes,” they would have acknowledged John’s authority to baptise Jesus, indicating that John recognised Jesus’ s’mikah. If they said, “No,” the people would have been in an uproar because they believer that John had s’mikah. They refused to commit themselves, and they walked away seething. This was another nail in Jesus’ coffin, as far as they were concerned.

Every time Jesus exposed them publicly, they lost more face with the people. By this time their reputation and their piety were in tatters. Their evil hearts were laid bare for the people, whose admiration and confidence they so desperately craved and did everything to protect, to see. This man had to go before they completely lost their control over and influence with the people. If this happened, the people would get out of hand and Rome would step in and crush them like pesky bugs.

This was a clash between the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of light. What the religious leaders planned to do with Jesus was evidence of the master they served. By serving themselves they served, not God but the enemy of everything that belonged to the light. Jesus was a representative of truth. No matter what they did to Him, they could not extinguish the light of truth. When the dust had cleared after the final showdown, the truth would finally be revealed.

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The Way Up Is Down

August 4, 2015Bible Studyauthority, high officials, rulers, servantLuella Campbell

THE WAY UP IS DOWN

Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.’ (Mark 10: 42-45).

Here’s another teaching of Jesus that did not sit well with His disciples. They belonged to the way of thinking that said, ’The way up is to stand on other people’s heads.’ Even as relatively uneducated men, they knew that this is what worked in the world.

But as usual, Jesus viewed life from another perspective. He took the inner life into consideration because it was the inner life that effected the outer life. It’s all very well climbing the corporate ladder by standing on other people’s heads, but what does that do to a person’s inside? Does it produce peace in the heart and harmony with one’s fellow human beings? I don’t think so. When one person gets ahead at the expense of others, it leaves a trail of disgruntled and discontented people.

The world views great people as those who are at the top looking down on others. Position, wealth, fame, prestige, popularity, visibility – these are all the qualifications needed to get to the top and to occupy the highest positions in society. ‘Not so you,’ said Jesus. ‘Things work differently in the kingdom of God.’

What prompted this discussion in the first place? James and John. They so badly wanted the places of honour next to Jesus when He took up His reign that they came and requested it outright, much to the annoyance of the other disciples. Why were they angry? Did they think that the brothers were being ‘unspiritual’ by asking for these positions? I don’t think so. I think they were fed up with them because they got in first. This kind of thing did not make for unity, did it?

People of the world and those who are citizens of God’s kingdom ought to have completely opposite views of greatness. For the worldly person, greatness is about what people think of me. I am great if other people look up to me as someone who has made it for whatever reason, or someone who has power to control other people. Wealth and position buy that control, and it makes me feel great when I can order others around especially when I know that they are afraid of me and will do what I tell them even though they might hate me because of fear.

Have you noticed, in your reading of the gospels, how people responded to Jesus? Did He lord it over them? What was the one thing the religious leaders kept on questioning Him about? What was it that the common people could not understand? His authority. Although He insisted that His authority came from God, they refused to believe Him. ‘He must be acting for the devil,’ the Pharisees decided, although that made no sense.

Strange, isn’t it, what people will believe when they refuse to give God the credit for what puzzles them. Take the origin of the universe, for example. Satan has successfully persuaded the majority of people in the western world to believe that it all just “happened” by chance. How much intelligence does it take to realise what nonsense this kind of thinking is? And yet people believe and accept it because “scientists” say so and they should know. Why? They do not want to believe that God created the heavens and the earth. If they do, they are accountable to Him. Bottom line. So they argue Him away – but He will not go way.

True greatness comes, not from climbing up but from bending down. The truly great person is the one who bends down low enough to lift others up. Worldly greatness stands on the head of others. True greatness in the kingdom of God sits down side by side with others. What happens on the inside of a person who bends down low enough to lift another up? Peace and joy. Satisfaction that I have done something good for someone else. And the outcome? Harmony. Togetherness. Bonding.

That’s what God’s kingdom is all about. Doing whatever it takes to restore harmony. Even if it means dying. It cost Jesus His life but was it worth it? A million times, yes. It’s the only way to live, really live!