Authority
This week is on Luke 10:17-20:
These verses describe a process a lot of new Christians go through when they're first encountering the supernatural world around them, or seeing results from preaching or evangelising. It's exciting stuff, and it's easy to get caught up by it and lose the point of it.
The disciples had been sent out to do God's work among the people. They were fascinated by what they saw, and came back excited at this newfound power they had. "Look Lord, look how powerful we are!" They were intoxicated with this spiritual authority.
Jesus flips it right back around for them and sobers them up. "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." This is the guy who saw Satan fall from heaven. Nobody is going to top his authority and experience. It's his authority that he gave to the disciples. It wasn't their toughness and righteousness that somehow earned it for them. They were given it the same as we might lend our tools to someone we've hired to do a job. "Yes the weed whacker does work pretty well, but don't get distracted."
Jesus tells them instead to focus on the fact that their names are written in heaven. In other words, don't be excited about yourself and what you're doing, but be excited about Jesus and what he did. Had he not saved us, our names would not be written in heaven. Like our salvation, our spiritual authority was given to us, not earned by us.
People with spiritual authority are almost worshiped in the church. If someone has a successful healing ministry, or casts out demons, or is a successful evangelist, people look at them as if they were doing it themselves. Oftentimes, they fall into the sin of pride and begin to consider themselves to be special as well.
They give speeches and write books on how to increase spiritual gifts and authority, but Jesus himself says that he gives that stuff to us. What they have instead is Satan's delusion, where they mistake the gifts and authority given to them for something they have produced themselves. "Those people got healed because *I* prayed for them." "Those demons got cast out because they won't mess with someone like *me*." "Through *my* ministry, thousands of people have gotten saved." You never hear these people rejoicing about how their names are written in heaven.
And yet that snare that people sometimes spend their entire Christian "career" trapped in is addressed by a couple sentences from Jesus. It is put to death by his simple truth. Instead of rejoicing in having authority, and assuming it's because of who we are, we should be asking who we are to be trusted with such authority, and rejoice in the fact that we are saved from ourselves by Jesus.
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
These verses describe a process a lot of new Christians go through when they're first encountering the supernatural world around them, or seeing results from preaching or evangelising. It's exciting stuff, and it's easy to get caught up by it and lose the point of it.
The disciples had been sent out to do God's work among the people. They were fascinated by what they saw, and came back excited at this newfound power they had. "Look Lord, look how powerful we are!" They were intoxicated with this spiritual authority.
Jesus flips it right back around for them and sobers them up. "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." This is the guy who saw Satan fall from heaven. Nobody is going to top his authority and experience. It's his authority that he gave to the disciples. It wasn't their toughness and righteousness that somehow earned it for them. They were given it the same as we might lend our tools to someone we've hired to do a job. "Yes the weed whacker does work pretty well, but don't get distracted."
Jesus tells them instead to focus on the fact that their names are written in heaven. In other words, don't be excited about yourself and what you're doing, but be excited about Jesus and what he did. Had he not saved us, our names would not be written in heaven. Like our salvation, our spiritual authority was given to us, not earned by us.
People with spiritual authority are almost worshiped in the church. If someone has a successful healing ministry, or casts out demons, or is a successful evangelist, people look at them as if they were doing it themselves. Oftentimes, they fall into the sin of pride and begin to consider themselves to be special as well.
They give speeches and write books on how to increase spiritual gifts and authority, but Jesus himself says that he gives that stuff to us. What they have instead is Satan's delusion, where they mistake the gifts and authority given to them for something they have produced themselves. "Those people got healed because *I* prayed for them." "Those demons got cast out because they won't mess with someone like *me*." "Through *my* ministry, thousands of people have gotten saved." You never hear these people rejoicing about how their names are written in heaven.
And yet that snare that people sometimes spend their entire Christian "career" trapped in is addressed by a couple sentences from Jesus. It is put to death by his simple truth. Instead of rejoicing in having authority, and assuming it's because of who we are, we should be asking who we are to be trusted with such authority, and rejoice in the fact that we are saved from ourselves by Jesus.
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