1st Feb 2011

• John 5:16-30 - The Authority of the Son.
• “My Father”
• Lots of different doctrinal and theological issues that I could look at here from the interesting Jewish concept of six millennia being work days and the seventh being a millennia of Sabbath to salvation itself.
• But I’ll stick to the main theme of authority.
• Jesus’ authority comes from His relationship to the father.
• The Jews were open to call God ‘Our’ Father but what creates the huge issue is the term ‘My’ Father. With this Jesus equates Himself to God.
• It is Jesus’ position that gives Him authority here; He is in submission to the Father and this gives Him authority on earth.
• The idea that Jesus is not God but just a good man would make Him far more palatable to far more people but as CS Lewis points out; He was Mad, Bad or God. Take your pick but because of what He said about Himself He does not allow us the flexibility to just call Him good.
• What gave Jesus His sense of authority to heal, forgive, judge and going against the grain was His sense of place. He knew Who He was, where He was going and Who He was in relationship to the  Father.
• Many people have become independent spokesman for Jesus. There's no such thing.
• They just do the ministry that they like to do but have opted out from the equation.
• It always has a limited impact and often ends in disaster.
• But in the Kingdom of God submission gives us authority.
• Satan took himself out of the equation. He was a leader and angels followed him. But he grasped the opportunity.
• I don’t want to be a leader like the devil.
• I want to be a leader in God’s equation.