𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐚𝐫.

The Question of Authority

𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫. 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬. 𝐈𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐝, 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐝.
BUT
𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐚𝐫.

What is authority? Who has authority? Does everyone with authority use it for good? Who gives authority? Who is your authority?

It seems like everyone is an authority on everything. I mean, you can hardly get on FB without a middle schooler telling you how to fight inflation, or shoot down a spy balloon, or how to fight climate change. And if you aren’t an authority on the topic du jour there’s a YouTube video and a TikTok-er ready to explain to you why they are an authority and why you should agree with them.

But even in the age where everyone believes they are an authority we simultaneously have a great distrust for authority.
We don’t trust the news. We don’t trust politicians. We don’t trust the cops. We don’t trust elections. We don't trust doctors. We don’t trust education. We don’t trust pastors and churches. We don’t trust power. We don’t trust people. We don't anyone or anything that challenges our positions and opinions.

We have a pandemic of distrust.

And as trust in institutions break down, there is a vacuum of authority. We create new authorities. We listen to new voices. All they need to do is sound like an authority we can agree with.

We christen new figures of authority to guide us into a new future where simultaneously everyone and no one is an authority. This is dangerous because we tend to listen to the voices that resonate with our lived experience and our desired outcome.

Paul the Apostle calls the people that flock to these personal authorities as people with itching ears. We gatherer around the self-appointed authority that scratches the itch.

Every side does it. Conservatives and progressives. Traditionalists and liberals. Sinners and saints. Everyone one of us is looking for autonomy and authority. We don’t want to be told what to do and we also want the person who does tells us what to do to agree with us.

That’s not bad unless our desire for autonomy sets us up against goodness and truth. It’s not bad to seek out an authority unless that authority sets us up against goodness and truth. It’s not bad unless that autonomy and authority sets itself up against the ultimate authority. It’s not bad unless the authority we choose is wrong. It’s not bad unless the authorities we choose only serve to affirm our wrong-ness.

It’s the challenge from the start, will we believe and will we trust the ultimate authority? Who is that ultimate authority?

I believe there is an ultimate authority. I believe there is One who whom is the source of all life and wisdom and beauty and love and rightness and truth. I believe creation too complex to be random. I believe life too meaningful to be the result of an happenstance. I believe that matter doesn’t exist without cause. I believe truth is truth. Natural laws are constant and consistent because they were designed that way.

Dr. Jeff Miller puts it this way, “The law of science known as the Law of Causality, or Law of Cause and Effect, says that every material effect must have an adequate antecedent or simultaneous cause (Miller, 2011). The Universe is a material effect that demands an adequate Cause, and atheism cannot provide one. The truth is, God exists. Often the atheist or skeptic, attempting to distract from and side-step the truth of this law without responding to it, retorts, “But if everything had to have a beginning, why does the same concept not apply to God? God needs a cause, too! Who caused God?”
First, notice that this statement is based on a misunderstanding of what the Law of Cause and Effect claims concerning the Universe. The law states that every material effect must have an adequate antecedent or simultaneous cause. A law of science is determined through the observation of nature—not supernature. The laws of nature do not apply to non-material entities. The God of the Bible is a spiritual Being (John 4:24), and therefore is not governed by physical law. In 1934, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, W.T. Stace, wrote in A Critical History of Greek Philosophy concerning causality: “[E]verything which has a beginning has a cause” (1934, p. 6, emp. added). God, according to the Bible, had no beginning. Psalm 90:2 says concerning God, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (emp. added). The Bible describes God as a Being Who has always been and always will be—“from everlasting to everlasting.” He, therefore, had no beginning. Hebrews 3:4 again states, “every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God,” indicating that God is not constrained by the Law of Cause and Effect as are houses, but rather, is the Chief Builder—the Uncaused Causer—the Being who initially set all effects into motion.
Further, scientists and philosophers recognize that, logically, there must be an initial, uncaused Cause of the Universe.”

The uncaused cause is the Authority. And that uncaused cause is God. So God is the ultimate authority. And His authority has been challenged by the Satan since the beginning.

In Genesis 3, the serpent walks over to Eve, Adam nearby, to question and challenge what God had spoken to them.

Genesis 3:1–7
CSB
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Notice the scheme of the Satan, the serpent. First he questions “Did God really say?

See that’s always his first challenge. He always starts by questioning God’s authority. He wants us to question God’s authority. To question if God really said that and if God really meant what He said. The scheme of the Satan always begins by calling on you to answer the question, “Did God Really Say?”.

The Satan hopes to get you to disbelieve the word of the Authority.

But notice Eve’s response. It’s the right one. Eve gives the right response to the cunning question of the Tempter.
"Yes, God really said not to eat it. He said we would die if we indulged in the fruit of that one tree."

They wouldn’t die because it was forbidden. It was forbidden because they would die.

They had life, and they had God, and they had the garden. But the Tempter wanted them to believe that that wasn’t enough.

So notice the second part of his scheme. “God doesn’t want you to eat because if you do you’ll be like Him and your eyes will be opened. You’ll be enlightened. You’ll know what God knows. You’ll be an equal authority.”

Remember Plan A was to get Eve to disbelieve the Authority.
Plan B is to get her to distrust the Authority.

See this. The Tempter actually backs off of his initial claim. He backs of his initial plan to call into question God’s authority and tries a new tactic, to call into question God’s motives.

If the Tempter cannot get you to disbelieve God’s authority he will attempt to get you to distrust God’s character.

He will attempt to get you to distrust God’s goodness and God’s love and God’s truth and God’s righteousness and God’s holiness and God’s power and God’s words.

If he can’t get to you disbelieve God he will work to get you to distrust God.

That’s the lesson of the serpent. He’s cunning. He’s scheming. He’s deceitful. He doesn’t only have one tactic. But he also doesn’t have the final say.

Why? Because he doesn’t have ultimate authority. God promised that the Tempter, the Serpent would be crushed, defeated by the offspring of Eve.

Genesis 3:14–15
CSB
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.*
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.

This is called the protoevangelium. It’s the first promise of deliverance from the death of the garden. The seed of the woman would have the power and authority to defeat the Tempter.

And as we continue thru the scripture we see promises and prophecies of the Serpent Crusher that is to come. Isaiah, Daniel, Moses, types and shadows, prophets and priests, rituals and festivals, all point to a Serpent-crusher.

A virgin will conceive, Isaiah said. A sin-bearer will be raised up as in Moses day.

Over and over again we see this motif, this promise. The Ancient of Days, this man who comes and is given authority to rule is prophesied by Daniel.

The New Testament alludes to Genesis 3:15 in several places. Romans 16:20 speaks of victory over Satan with the image of crushing underfoot, as one might do to a snake. Galatians 4:4 refers to Jesus being “born of woman,” reminding us that the phrase in Genesis refers to the seed (offspring) of the woman. Hebrews 2:14 refers to Jesus destroying – through his own death – Satan. Some think that the blow against the heel in Genesis 3:15 actually would be lethal, since snakes were often poisonous. In that case, Genesis would not be talking about a lethal vs. non-lethal blow, but both would be mortal wounds. In Jesus’ case, however, it was exactly his death that led to redemption. Finally, Revelation 12:9 and 17 allude to the war of Satan against “the woman” and “the rest of her offspring” – a clear reference back to Genesis 3:15 which ties the first and last books of the Bible together. Jesus may be the ultimate seed of the woman, but his followers are also in battle against Satan against which they will be victorious (compare Romans 16:20 above). (paragraph taken from a source)

And then thousand of years after the promise to Eve and the Tempter, Jesus appears. More than appears, Jesus is born.

Matthew 1:16 CSB
"and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary,
who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah."

Mary gave birth to Jesus. The daughter of Eve gave birth to the Son of God.

And this Jesus is perfect encapsulation of the Godhead in bodily form. John calls him the Word made flesh, the Creator. Jesus even told Caesar that he had no authority except what was granted to Him by the Father. That Jesus death was a willing laying down of His life as a covering for our sins. Paul calls Jesus the exact imprint of God and the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. Jesus calls himself the Son of Man and uses Daniel imagery about himself as the King of heaven, the Ancient of Days, the one who rides on clouds.

But even Jesus made claims about his authority.

Matthew 28:18 CSB
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Jesus claimed to be the Ultimate Authority. He has been given a name above every name, that everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth will bow their knee to. He’s is the WORD made flesh.

The Word is authoritative because it’s the revelation of Jesus.
Jesus is the authority.

But hear me this morning, the Satan, the tempter is still at work in the world to using the tactics of the Garden to deceive.
Plan A - Did God really say?
Plan B - Is God really good?

Did God really say love you enemies? Did God really say blessed are the poor? Did God really say to avoid drunkenness? Did God really say not to gossip?
Does God really have my best interests at heart? Does God really care about my struggles? Is God really trustworthy? Is God really good?

The Tempter wants us to doubt God’s truthfulness and God’s trustworthiness. The Tempter wants us to doubt God’s authority and God’s character.

If we will doubt either one of those we will reach out wantonly towards branches of the tree, snatch the forbidden fruit, place it to our lips and bite.

And once we bite, once we’ve tasted rebellion our shame causes us to run and hide. But God in his goodness, truthfulness, and trustworthiness, is calling out for us so that He can restore us.

Jesus speaks as one having authority because Jesus really has the authority to rescue, redeem, and restore you. Jesus is God proving His truthfulness and His trustworthiness. Jesus is God crushing the head of the Liar.