Jesus’ Authority

Mark 1:21-27

Jesus’ Authority

     
     Jesus is in command of the heavens and the earth. He is in command of the physical elements that make up the things around us as well as the spirits that inhabit them. What an exciting thought! Jesus is ruler of all. Whatever He says, it will be done according to His decree. The spirits must depart. The flesh must be healed. All that He declares must take place. And we are His servants. His authority goes with us if we are doing what He has commanded us to do. This means that if we are doing what He has commanded than there is nothing that will be too big or impossible to overcome in the job. Jesus’ word is law and if we are ambassadors for Him than we carry His seal that gives us authority to pass through every check point and security that stands between us and our mission for Him. He gives us a key that allows us to open all doors through which the job takes us. All must let us through if we are about the Kings business.

     However, this lesson is only exciting if you desire to be a doer of God’s word and not just a hearer. If you are caught up in your own life than you will find that you have no desire to make use of this ability. Your desire to please yourself is all that is needed to hold you back from answering God’s call for you. We really need to wake up and do the jobs that God has called us to do. We need to put ourselves aside so that we are able to quickly respond with no delay or hesitation. Our love for ourselves constantly gets in the way of our jobs for the Lord. If we are presented with two things to do, one being for God and the other for us we prefer to do the one for us. We tend to view everything through the eyes of (how will it affect us?)

          Do we get anything from doing it?

          Does it hurt us in any way?

          Is it going to be fun?

          Does it get in the way of the things I want to do?

     God is like the captain of a ship who knows that it is sinking and in an effort to get everybody to safety assigns His crew to getting people off the ship. If we get distracted by doing what we want to do we are like a crew, that while running down the hall making sure that people are getting away safely we spot some expensive jewelry that was left behind in the owners haste. So we disobey our orders to save lives and attempt to get something for ourselves. But now it occurs to us that there could be so much more if we start looking in other rooms. So instead of seeing how many people we can rescue we start seeing how much we might be able to take with us as we get off the boat. So not only are we not faithful to do what we have been told, but we run the risk of not even making it off the boat ourselves.

     As Christians it is very important that we understand our situation here. We truly are trying to rescue as many people on this sinking ship as possible. The more anxious we are the more energy we will put into our effort to rescue people. We have no time for seeking our own wealth or even our own safety. If one of the crew ran to the deck and got onto the boat seeking to save himself he would indeed get away alive, but with no honor or joy at having been part of getting others off as well. He rescued no one and ignored his captain’s orders. People died because of his actions who might otherwise have been rescued.

     We need to feel the stress of knowing the boat is going down. We need to feel the panic of not reaching everyone in time to be rescued. We need to be willing to risk our own lives to go to the lowest parts of the ship and to see that all get off safely. We are running out of time! Let us be already running as our Captain shouts His orders to us.

     There is not much time, let us make the most of it. Let us pray for that fire to be burning in our hearts. We need to be consumed with love for our neighbor. May God bless each one of us with a new heart that cannot rest without doing all that is possible to rescue others.