By What Authority?

Pharisee.jpg

The “Quick Guide to Miracles”

BY WHAT AUTHORITY?

  • Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

  • The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!”

  • And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

  • And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

  • And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

“When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” – Matthew 21:23

Jesus did not answer the Pharisees because they could not answer His question.

So, I ask you, the reader,

“By what authority did Jesus do these things, and who gave Him this authority?”

This is a question which must be answered by anyone who would be a disciple of Jesus. Jesus tells His disciples that they will continue His Works, and will do even greater works than He (John 14:12), so it is imperative that we, His disciples, know the answer.

Another time, in the Temple, the Jews were persecuting Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath, and this time Jesus gives a response:

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“But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

“For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” – Matthew 5:17-19, 30

ACTION POINT

  • Attain the Mind and Attitude of Christ

  • Practice His ways we must bear in mind that it is not we who do these works, but it is He.

  • Know that we can only do what we see the Father doing and we say only what we hear the Father saying, because we can do nothing of ourselves.

  • Listen and watch for the Father – literally.

  • Be still and know that He is God – get alone with Him

  • Allow the Holy Spirit to quicken and train our spirit to be alert and sensitive to the voice of God.

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

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