July 23, 2017 The Authority of the Son by Conley Owens (Deacon)

The Authority of Secondary Authorities and Human Resistance

Many people do—excuse me, it's very loud—many people often do very difficult things that are not obviously in their best interest. For example, children sometimes eat their vegetables. Now why do people do difficult things that aren't obviously in their best interest, not obviously to them?

It's on the authority of another. The reason why a child might eat his vegetables is because of the authority of the parent. The parent knows what is best for the child, and the parent can enforce this rule that they have given to the child.

The Christian life is full of difficult things—trials, self-denial, suffering. What is it that enables or compels a Christian to live the Christian life? It is the authority of another. Specifically, it is the authority of Jesus Christ.

And that is what concerns our author of the book of Hebrews today as we continue with the beginning of this book. So today we will be looking at him, at Jesus, as the creator and the sustainer and the inheritor of all creation.

So if you would turn there, we will begin. Hebrews 1 .1 begins, Now these prophets are messengers from God. They are secondary authorities. Now while they came with the authority of the Holy Spirit, men find it difficult to respect secondary authorities.

A secondary authority does not have the ability to enforce what he is saying often. He doesn't have the ability to guarantee the things that he says. There are many limits to what a secondary authority can do.

The message of a secondary authority is limited. The scope of who the authority, this messenger, may speak to is determined by the one sending that messenger. So consider the prophets. They were sent to specific sets of people.

Most of what the prophet spoke was not written in the Bible at all because it was not intended for all people at all times. It was just intended for specific regions at certain times. There's another limitation in that the prophet has a limited ability to demonstrate the truth of what he is saying.

Maybe he says that something will come true, and he gives a sign. Maybe he doesn't give a sign. He does not have the freedom and authority to demonstrate things to the satisfaction of the one he is sent to.

He is limited not only in the scope of what he says and in the ability to demonstrate, but also in the message himself, in the message itself. He is given a specific message to give to a people. He cannot elaborate on it at will.

He instead is given only what is given by the primary authority that sends him as a secondary authority. Now I was thinking about this, and I think you can break down kinds of authority, perhaps, into three types.

Three Kinds of Authority: Intellectual, Legal, and Dynamic

So I think there's an intellectual authority, a legal authority, and a dynamic authority. Now what I mean by that is an intellectual authority is someone who is an expert in his domain, and so he is able to say with authority what it is that is good and right in this domain.

So a doctor has intellectual authority. He is able to tell you what is best for you to do. It might not be obvious to you that brain surgery is right for you, and he does not have other kinds of authority.

He cannot force you to go under the knife, but he has intellectual authority. No one can trump the doctor and tell him that they know better. There's also legal authority. Legal authority would be like ownership.

You have a moral right to make some sort of proclamation. A king owning all the land has the moral authority to require—has the legal authority to require taxes. And then there's also dynamic authority, the ability to actually enforce what it is you're proclaiming.

So, for example, a police officer, he might not be in an intellectual authority. He might even require something that's contrary to the law, but because he's armed, he has dynamic authority. He's able to enforce what it is that he requires.

There are these three types of authority. Now consider the prophets that were sent to the people. They had intellectual authority in the sense that they knew the message that was given them, but they didn't know it as fully as God himself knows the message that's being given.

They did not understand in full Jesus, the one whom they were prophesying. They also did not have dynamic authority. You know, occasionally a prophet would call down fire from heaven, but most often they did not wield the power of the sword.

The power of the sword was wielded against them. And while they had the legal authority to proclaim what they were proclaiming, they'd only have it in a secondary way. And so it is difficult for us as people to recognize a secondary authority with all the authority that has been invested in them.

If there's somewhere that you want to park and there's a sign telling you not to park there, are you more likely to listen to the sign, or are you going to listen to a police officer who's standing there telling you not to park?

I think the police officer is going to be more persuasive, even though the sign, that secondary authority, has the right to tell you not to park there. And people demand this all the time of God. They say, you know, if God really wanted me to believe him, why doesn't he come down here himself and declare himself to me?

People have trouble accepting these secondary authorities. And if the Christian life has so many benefits, as I believe it does, if it is so beneficial to people, even if we cannot see how self-denial, how suffering, is beneficial to us, where does that leave people who are not convinced of these things?

Where does that leave them? How can they benefit from these things if they cannot be persuaded by the secondary authorities that have been sent to them? And so God sends to us a primary authority. He sent to us Jesus Christ.

Christ as the Heir, Creator, and Sustainer of All Things

Verse two, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

So while someone who is over a household or over a castle might send servants to you to come speak to you, it means something more when they send their own son. The son is in charge of the whole household.

He's not in charge of parts like the servants are. He is a primary authority. Not only that, it's personal when the son is sent. It is not just some mechanism by which a message is communicated. It is personal.

Imagine if, you know, the president sends you a letter, you know, with a little printed out signature that's not real telling you something. Or, you know, if he were to send his son, that would communicate to you that, oh, this is personal.

This really means something to me. That is what God has done. He has sent his son, and it says that whom he appointed the heir of all things, if he is the heir of all things, that means he owns everything.

He has the right to state whatever he wishes to state. It says also that he created the world. Now your ESV here says that he created the world. If you were reading something like the King James, it would say that he created the worlds, because this word in Greek is plural.

The idea is that he's created this vast extent of everything. All things are under his authority. He has created all things, and being the creator, he knows all things. Anything that he says is true must be true.

Who would know his creation better than the one who created it? And it also says that he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Now you might see yourself as one who is sustained and lives day by day just by the air around him, not requiring the work of another.

But in fact, it is Jesus Christ that upholds all things in every moment. If you think about what holds this pulpit together, you know, you might talk about the properties of wood, and then you might break it down further from there, and you might talk about molecular bonds.

You might break it down further from there and talk about things that I don't understand. But in the end, all you can describe is rules that are happening. You can't explain why those rules continue happening.

You can only describe what you see. Why is it that these rules hold together? It is Jesus that upholds all things. A word of caution. Some take this too far and say that this means that God is the efficient cause of all things, meaning that he's directly causing all things.

That is not the case. That would make him the author of evil. But this does mean that he is the one who sustains everything and ensures its continued existence. Jesus Christ is the one who upholds all things.

Colossians 1 speaks of this too. It says,. So I don't know if you heard all that, but the same thing's there. Through him and for him. It's all for him. He's the inheritor. It's all through him. He's the creator.

And he holds all things together. He is the sustainer. If you're wondering, you know, why is it through him? Does that mean that he only had a passive hand in creation? Verse 10 of Hebrews says,. That's speaking of Jesus.

He was directly involved in all these things. He's the creator, inheritor, and sustainer of the universe. Now, I could break those three things down in other ways. I could say that this refers to, think about it in terms of time.

In the past, he created. In the future, he inherits. Presently, he sustains. He is an eternal authority. Think also of the three kinds of authority that I mentioned before—intellectual, legal, dynamic authority.

If he created, he has intellectual authority over the universe. He understands it better than anyone else. If he is the inheritor of the universe, he owns it. He has legal authority to make whatever proclamation he wishes to make.

If he has dynamic authority, he sustains the universe. He has dynamic authority. He is able to enforce and enact whatever commands or promises that he makes. He has a full and complete authority. And yet, people tend to—people want to reject.

They want to reject such authority. They want to say that Jesus, you know, because he hasn't acted on this authority that he has, he must not actually have it. Well, just because he hasn't acted on it does not mean that he does not have it.

He sits at the right hand of the throne of God, and one day he will return and make every knee bow. So it is better that your knee bows now than later. But yet, yet people still have trouble, still have trouble with this authority.

Rejecting Authority from the Prophets to Christ

So it's not just secondary authorities that people have trouble with. It's this primary authority as well. Think about Stephen's sermon in Acts 7. He talks about how all the people rejected the prophets.

They rejected Joseph, they rejected Moses, they rejected all the prophets, and then eventually they crucified Jesus. How is Jesus really any different? Jesus himself knew that this would happen. If you turn to Luke 20, I'd like to read you one of Jesus' parables, beginning with verse 9.

Luke 29. And he began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and led it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant, but they also beat him and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.

Then the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.

They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So people who have a problem with secondary authorities have an even greater problem with primary authorities. It's not that they weren't convinced by the secondary authority.

It was that they have a problem with authority altogether. And if we consider Jesus as a primary authority, and answer simply as a primary authority, consider this, that Jesus' teachings in the New Testament are largely recorded by the apostles.

If we limited ourselves to the red letters, we wouldn't have much. We must rely on the secondary authorities, the ones who are sent by Jesus. And the same with the prophets. We cannot throw them out. Consider also this, Romans 1 .20 says that since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, his eternal power, his divine nature, have been clearly perceived, leaving men without excuse.

If his eternal power has been clearly perceived, it is not just that when Jesus came, people saw God's authority. They see God's authority each and every day through the world. The same God who has the power to create as Jesus created, that authority that we're talking about right now, people have already witnessed that authority, they already know that authority, and they already reject that authority.

Consider Adam. Adam spoke face-to-face with God, the primary authority. Did that convince Adam that he should obey God's command? No, it didn't. And Adam was made upright. You compared to him are quasimodo, a hunchback, not upright at all.

How are you to be able to abide by this authority, do things that are not obviously beneficial to you even though they are? How are you to receive any of these benefits? It's a difficult thing. People, all people, dislike authority.

Children dislike authority. They're eager to disobey their parents. There's an old Broadway musical you might know called The Fantastics, and part of the plot is in the first act, the children, this boy and this girl, are manipulated into falling in love with each other by their fathers, telling them they didn't want them to get married.

The whole point is that they could have this arranged marriage by pretending that it was against their rules because this would convince them. And it's not just younger people who dislike authority. It's older people as well.

I have an older relative who recently got a ticket for jaywalking. Now, this person knew exactly what the authority said about jaywalking, but people find it difficult to submit to authority no one wishes to.

And what about you? You've read the Bible, or at least part of it. You know what God requires, and do you submit to God's word? Do you submit to his authority? And if you think to yourself, well, yes, I do generally.

Let me give you just one example. You are required to share your faith with others. Now when those opportunities arise—and I'm not saying you must talk to every person about your faith—but when those opportunities arise, are you more likely to seek your comfort zone or to seek self-denial and speak to others?

I know where I stand on that one. What is the answer to this problem? The answer is found in the primary authority of Jesus, but it's not because we find primary authority convincing. It is that his authority is not just one to proclaim a message, but is one to establish a message, that message being the gospel.

The Gospel as Command, Promise, and Transforming Power

By his authority, he establishes the gospel. And I don't just mean that because Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected that he has brought about the gospel. I mean that he is the authority to establish it in your heart.

If he is the inheritor of the universe, that means that he's the inheritor of you. If he's the creator of the universe, that means that he's the creator of you. And if he sustains the universe, that means he sustains you.

He has the authority to change you, to change your heart, and he does that by the power of the gospel. Because he died on the cross bearing the weight of sin, one of the sins that he died for was your rejection of authority.

You can be forgiven from that if you trust in Jesus. But not only that, he has the authority to change you so that not only are you forgiven from your past sins of rejecting authority, but you can be changed into one who begins to accept Jesus' authority, and no longer will you be a slave to your own desires, but you can instead do that which is beneficial, that you do not necessarily see as beneficial.

You can begin to live a life that involves suffering, that involves self-denial. Jesus has authority over all creation, and he can change you. You see, the gospel is a wonderful promise that gives us a great hope, but did you know that the gospel is also a command?

Romans 10 .16 talks about obeying the gospel. It says that not all have obeyed the gospel. Second Thessalonians 1 .8 says that there will come a time when Jesus will seek vengeance on all those who have not obeyed his gospel.

If the gospel is good news, if it's a promise, what does it mean to obey good news? What does it mean to obey a promise? First of all, it means to believe it. And beyond that, that good news has implications, and it means to let those implications flow through your life in a way that you are submitted to them.

If Jesus Christ died for your sin, it means that you should be willing to suffer for others. If Jesus denied himself, it means that you should be willing to deny yourself. That cross is good news because it is not only something that forgives you, it is something that enables you to begin to participate in the Christian life, to begin walking with God and have peace with him.

I'd like to read you one more verse about obeying the gospel in 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter 4, beginning in verse 12. 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter 4, beginning in verse 12. So it speaks of those who suffer as those who obey the gospel.

And how is it that they obey the gospel? It is because they trust their faithful creator. They have submitted to his authority, and they recognize that he knows what is best for them. It speaks of him as a faithful creator.

He has created you, so he knows what is best for you. He has created you, and he is able to continue creating you into a new creation. You see, Jesus is a good king. He requires much out of us, but at the same time, his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

Now how could that be that he requires so much and yet so little? It is because by his creative power, by his authority to establish the gospel in our hearts, he makes us capable of obeying the gospel.

This is something that he can do for you, and if you struggle to obey his word, to do that which is beneficial to you even though you do not see it, then call out to him, and he will change your heart.

The Church, Unity, and Sharing in Christ's Inheritance

Think about what this says for the church. If we are to live together as a church body, what does this say for us? If he changes our hearts, he makes us ones not necessarily seeking our own self-interest, that which appears to be beneficial to us, but he makes us one who can seek the self-interest of others.

We can, instead of looking out for just ourselves, we can build each other up. Think about what this does for unity. If we're united under a single authority, if we have a single message, that is something that can unify us.

You know the saying, misery loves company? It's true. If we are suffering together under a single authority, denying ourselves for the same cause, that is something that can draw us together. What things can draw people together like suffering together under a single united authority, that is something that can bring us very close, that can dissolve our differences and make us really love each other.

Think about how this authority, in a sense, has been imparted to us. While it is Jesus that changes hearts and lives through the power of his gospel, we have been given the authority to proclaim that gospel to others.

And so, in a secondary sense, we have authority to change hearts and lives by proclaiming the gospel. And if Jesus has authority over all the world by being the inheritor of it, that is something else that we can look forward to and have hope in, because Romans 8 says that we will one day be co-heirs with Jesus.

That authority is something that we can share. Jesus' authority is a wonderful hope for the church, because it's something that we can participate in, and it's something that can change us into people who are not slaves to ourselves doing what we think is best, but can instead do what the great physician thinks is best and do that which is ultimately good for us and for others.

So if you are one who does not submit to the authority of Christ, he has authority over all things, over all creation, and that means that he has authority over you, and that requires something. But you're not without hope.

If you trust in him, if you call out to him, he will change your heart to be one who can follow him and follow him into glory and victory, follow him into sharing that inheritance of the whole world with him.

If you are one who does already love God, who does trust in Jesus Christ, and yet you struggle to deny yourself, you struggle to serve God the way he requires, then you can call out to Jesus also. Just because he's already changed your heart once doesn't mean he can't continue forming you into what he would have you to be.

So call out to him, because the one who has authority over the whole universe has authority over you, is able to change you into the kind of person who is prepared to share the universe with him. Amen.

Closing Prayer for Submission to Christ's Authority

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that we would begin to appreciate your Son's authority, and that we would submit to it, and that we would recognize the great hope that it gives us, and that by Jesus' authority that he would change our lives, and that he would form us more into his image.

In Jesus' name, amen.