28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
My favorite teacher, Ed Ewing, passed away recently. He was my favorite teacher because he brooked no nonsense and every minute of his classes was used for teaching and learning. I took away more from his classes than any others. He had a poster on his door that said, “When I want your opinion, I’ll beat it out of you.” That sounds more like authoritarianism than authority but it was all in good fun. Jesus, on the other hand, had the authority that he claimed. He was the only teacher with the right to beat anything out of us. As we all know, he chose a different path according to his perfect plan. What drew these hearers was not his imposing personality but the truth in his words. People paid attention because they knew he spoke truth into their hearts.
Now we can scan the internet for anything our itching ears want to hear. Any sin you want to condone can be found to be celebrated by some church somewhere. Seek and you will find, unfortunately. How amazing it must have been to hear the word of the Lord from the Lord! In a way, we still can. The authority of Scripture and the word of the Lord will never be outdated because it is alive, not dead. When we read the Bible, we hear the words as if Jesus spoke them into our hearts just like theirs. Books are great. I have thousands, but this one book has the living and active word spoken of in Hebrews 4. Read it daily because it is spoken by…
One who has authority.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church