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Articles 2024-2026
And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority.
I imagine many first century rabbis and teachers in Israel probably tried to sound authoritative when they taught. But when Jesus spoke, His words were actually invested with God’s supernatural authority. In His ministry He was bringing to the people the presence, the power, and the paradigm of Heaven. In His earthly life, Jesus was the perfect expression of what God had meant when He spoke in the Law and the Prophets about the coming Messiah. Being in Himself the embodiment of the written word of God while at the same time speaking forth the present utterances of the Father, Jesus made known in Israel what the apostle John would later write, that: the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
People experienced the glory of God when they encountered the grace and truth filling the man Christ Jesus. Similarly, if when we speak today in His name, the listeners do not to some degree behold the glory of God and experience the grace to walk in the truth that He is making known through us, then perhaps something is amiss. Either in us, those listening, or both.
But nothing was amiss in Jesus. He was with great authority revealing the works and the words of God. And whereas the glory revealed on Sinai in Moses’ day was so frightening that the people shrunk back, here God had put Himself into human terms and was beckoning them to draw near. As He made known the majestic truths of Heaven both through speech and perfect obedience, the listeners who had ears to hear could see in Him an abiding grace being made available to them that they might walk in His footsteps.
Here was startling good news. That which filled Christ was being made available to all who would draw near. Notice John’s words about the grace and truth filling Jesus.
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
Grace upon grace. While truth is constant, grace is like a flowing river. Because we seek to walk in God’s unchanging truth and because we need His grace to face constantly changing circumstances, our Lord supplies out of His fulness the grace to follow/represent Him no matter what each day presents.
The spiritual authority revealed in Christ in the first century is to now be laid hold of and then manifested in our lives. Kingdom authority has nothing to do with holding a position in a religious organization; it has only to do with Christ who has all authority in heaven and on earth making Himself known in and through a people who have Him as their only agenda.
It is His kingdom that is invading our generation. His authority must be honored and proclaimed. For example, some today might feel that present apostolic authority is to be found in one who holds a position above others in a particular stream of churches. But true apostolic authority will fearlessly and uncompromisingly fight for Christ to be honored in His rightful place at the center of everything, even as the central focus of every stream of churches. He is the only King – the One who has all authority among us and He is the only foundation – everything that happens among us must depend on Him.
It is just so easy for us to look to leaders, be they apostolic, prophetic, pastoral, etc. to give us the direction we seek. And often that is exactly how God will guide us. But our tendency has too often been to make what occurs by grace into a position. We try to make permanent and solidify something that God did relationally as He spoke through one of His servants. And positional authority among men is simply not how His kingdom works. The only office/position in His kingdom is that of King. And that position has already been taken.
Again, we must behold Christ and receive of His fullness (He is the perfect reservoir of Heaven’s grace and truth) so that others will see in us the glory of God. When we who are in spiritual leadership speak and serve in His house, do we do so to fulfill a certain job description? Do we serve in certain ways because that is what others expect? At the same time, do we expect people to respond to us because of a certain word such as apostle, pastor, etc. next to our names? Or are we simply dependent on the living Christ within us for the wisdom needed to address each circumstance we face?
To be clear, when we as leaders move in the operative grace of God in our lives, certain descriptive words will clearly apply. The terms apostle, prophet, elder, etc. are biblical and give clarity to His gracious work in our lives. But organizational approaches to building in God’s house will consider these terms as offices or positions to be attained and that those official positions will have spiritual authority inherent in them.
But God’s kingdom is not so. His rule is about the revelation of His grace to walk in the truth that He is making known. Today, He is revealing truth from His kingly throne of grace in order to change people’s lives. We certainly believe this to be true concerning evangelism. The lost need to hear the truth that can set them free. But it is also true that God’s kingdom approach does not simply change when dealing with His people in His house. Surely, grace and truth revealing the glory of God will transform sinners. And of course, the same must also be true for believers.
How we build in God’s house will either be in accordance with and honoring of Christ’s kingly rule or it will have elements that tend to obscure it. Jesus spoke often in Israel about the Kingdom of God and very little about the Church. On the other hand, the apostles then went forth by the power of the Holy Spirit and planted New Testament churches all over the Roman Empire. They saw that the local church was God’s vehicle for extending His kingdom rule among men – not only among the lost but also among His own people.
To whatever degree I expect people to respond to me based on some biblical term next to my name or because I hold an official position in God’s house, I am bringing an obscuring element to God’s kingdom. The problem is that I am teaching His people to respond to something other than His operative grace. And it is His grace and truth that reveal his glory.
Together, we all must learn to recognize and then respond to the grace of God in each other. Those in leadership roles must speak with full authority when He is releasing His grace to do so. But at the same time, we must learn not to speak until He does. No matter what the expectations of others.
When we build with positional authority the result will always be the multiplicity of many smaller “kingdoms” each with its own top position. Then, when we pursue unity, we think in terms of convening gatherings of those leaders. But God’s kingdom is already perfectly unified; He does not need any help to somehow pull it all together. The problem is that because of our approach to spiritual authority, we have in some measure obscured His perfectly cohesive kingdom.
As a result, because we have built in God’s House the way we have for so long, many have accepted the teaching that His kingdom can only be established by Christ’s return. Granted, His return will certainly bring His kingdom into full expression. But the idea that His appearance is discontinuous from the present work of the Holy Spirit is questionable. Is it not obvious from the Scriptures that God intends for His present work in Church history to grow in clarity across the earth and then ultimately culminate in Christ’s return? Are not the five ministries given for the building up of Christ’s body, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13 NKJV)? Are we not to expect the Church to grow up corporately into Him who is the head: from whom…the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Ephesians 4:16 NIV)?
It is doubtful that our Lord intends to return so that He can then rescue us from our questionable ways of building in His house. Rather, His coming in glory will be the finishing touches of His successful present work among us. After all, He did promise: I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18 ESV). If He is indeed building His house and we are recognizing and honoring Him in His rightful place among us, when He appears, we will not have to suddenly then decide to give Him centrality in our midst. Rather, He will step into the very place that He already made for Himself among us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us seek to cooperate with Him in His present work.
Notice one example of the impact that Jesus’ kingdom authority had two thousand years ago.
In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are – the Holy One of God!” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.”
They wanted to know what message this was. Perhaps the better question would have been, “Who is this man?” The man Christ Jesus was filled with the grace and truth of Heaven. And as a result, the glory of God exposed spiritual darkness for what it was. The hope for our nation is the glory of God. And in the Church, we simply must set aside everything among us that hinders the revelation of His glory.
Donald Rumble – February 2024
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