I'VE GOT THE POWER

-CoNnEcT- A teacher at a religious institution once asked his class, “Who has the ultimate authority in this room?” The class was a little surprised to hear him asked the question, but finally decided to answer with the most obvious response. One guy raised his hand and said, “Obviously you are the ultimate authority in this room, you are the teacher.” The teacher’s response was one of disagreement, so he called on another student. “Well, if it isn’t you, then I guess you want us to say God,” said the student.
The teacher quickly responded “Well, God is always in control, but aside form him, who is the authority?”

There were no more responses, so the teacher finally answered his own question. “The ultimate authority in this classroom is you, the students. You control what will go on and if the class will even take place. You are the ones with the “unspoken” authority to learn or not learn. You are in control.”

-ReFlEcT- Read Matthew Chapter 21
Key Verses: 23-27

Jesus is spending some time in and around the temple in Jerusalem. He has riled a few people by calling them robbers (they were setting up business right in the church!) and the religious leaders of his day want to know who this “Jesus” guy thinks he is. So they ask him, who gave you this kind of authority to act this way?! (aka, “who died and made you boss?”) Instead of Jesus just jumping on them and saying “ME!...I AM GOD YOU KNOW?!” He questions their knowledge. He wants to know if these religious church folk know anything about God…but they don’t really seem to get that the baptism of John (water baptism for repentance) was something done by God’s authority. They know that if they believe God gave John the authority to baptize people, and Jesus is similar to John, then they will be criticized for not believing. On the other hand, if they say that the baptisms were from human authority, the crowd is going to go crazy! (because they definatley thought John the Baptists actions were from God.)

Jesus response to their ignorance? He tells them that he doesn’t have to explain himself. If they don’t get it, then they probably never will get it---and since his authority to do what he is doing is from God, he has no need to defend himself. I am sure these guys were left wondering “who is the ultimate authority in our temple?! God, this Jesus guy, or us- the leaders?

-DiReCt- We struggle with the idea of authority our whole lives. We don’t like anyone telling us what to do or how to act. We get to places where we sometimes rebel against our parents authority (come on, admit it.) Ultimately we want freedom to be the only authority in our life. We can be respectful to some degree, but we really want to be the one to make all the decisions for ourselves. Have we figured out though, that God is the ultimate authority, or at least he should be? We should WANT him to be a part of every decision we make, but so often we don’t.

So think about the opening question the teacher asked…who is the ultimate authority in your life? Is it a certain person, is it God, or is it you? You are the only one who can decide if God will take that place in your life. Then you will know that the actions he guides you to do are ones you can claim as “authorized by God.” That is a pretty bold authorization…not too many people can argue with that!

-Who is the ultimate authority in your life?
-What do you like or dislike about that?
-List some things you can appreciate about anyone who is an authority figure in your life (teacher, coach, leader, parent, etc.)
-Take some time to pray that God would help you (and all of us) to learn to respect God as the ultimate authority in our lives.
-Leave some comments and/or prayer requests!