The Apostles and NT Authority #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. Fourthly, Christ raised the dead. Christ raised the dead. Look at Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7, we could have gone and I think it's John 11 and looked at the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus come forth. He'd been dead for four days in the tomb and Jesus calls him forth.

But we'll look at Luke chapter 7 for this evening, 11 through 16. Now in Luke 7 verse 11, soon afterward he went to a town called Nain and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Then he came up and he touched the beer and the bearers stood still.

They were carrying the body through the village. And Jesus said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all and they glorified God, saying, a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people.

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. He raised the dead. Now, beloved, nobody can do that. No one can do that. Oh, I know that there are, you know, third hand claims that charismatics make from things that are happening somewhere in the bowels of Africa.

But none of it's true. If they really had the authority to raise the dead, like some of them claim that they do, do it. Do it in front of us with the cameras on.

Go to a cemetery and call someone out of the grave like Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave. Do that. You know what? If they could do that, they would do that. You know why they would do that if they could do that? It's because they'd make a fortune. They would make a fortune if they could do that in a verifiable way. But instead, they rely on these shadowy, unverifiable, non-fossifiable stories to lead gullible people astray. If they could raise the dead, beloved, they'd be out doing it everywhere because they would make billions. As it is, they make tens of millions with false claims, false signs. You can only imagine what they would do if they could really do it. They don't do it because they can't do it.

We'll address that down the road also. Jesus exercised authority over the realm of the dead. This shows that he has the authority of God. All authority resides in him. Authority over human disease, authority over demons, authority over sin, authority over death, authority in his teaching.

And that's not all. Turn a page or two in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. Luke 8 in verse 24.

Luke 8. And we'll start in verse 22 just to give the full narrative account here. One day he got into a boat with his disciples. Luke chapter 8 verse 22. One day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake.

So they set out. And as they sailed, he fell asleep. His humanity side by side with his deity.

Scripture describes this in an effortless way. Two natures, one person. But he fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him saying, Master, Master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, where is your faith? And they were afraid and they marveled saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even winds and water and they obey him?

He controlled nature. There are just so many simple ways to picture this to contrast our human impotence with what scripture describes about the absolute authority of Jesus Christ. Have you ever been to the ocean? See the waves coming in? Stand on the beach, look out at them, lift your hands and say, I command thee to stop. And watch what happens. Go out and speak to the thunder, the lightning and the thunder of a Midwest thunderstorm and say, cease, be still. And watch what happens as the storm continues because it does not heed your voice. It does not obey you, beloved. Contrast that with the person of Christ speaking to a raging sea saying, in effect, that's enough, stop.

And the billowing waves turn to a flat sea of glass. That is breathtaking, frightening authority. We say frightening because that's how the disciples responded. Look at it there in verse 25. They were afraid and they marveled. They realized that they were in the presence of deity. They went from being afraid of the storm to having a deeper fear transferred to the one who had authority over the storm.

Back in Luke chapter five, you don't need to turn there. Jesus performed another miracle with the waters. You remember they'd been fishing all night and Jesus tells them to let down the net and they'll catch fish. And Peter says, Lord, we've been fishing.

We're professionals here. We've been fishing all night. Haven't caught a thing, but at your bidding, we'll let the net down.

And, you know, I don't want to I just want to warn you. We've done this and there's nothing there. Verse six of Luke five, they lowered the nets and they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, filled both boats and they began to sink. What was Peter's response?

Here's the point. Peter's response when he saw all of this and he saw that manifestation of divine authority, the authority of absolute deity manifested before him. He fell down at Jesus's. He fell down before Jesus saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

Oh, Lord. They feared Jesus. As he manifested authority over the elements to him. Peter, seeing that manifestation of authority earlier in Luke five, realized that he was in the presence of holy deity.

He was convicted of sin as a result, and he fell down at Christ and worshiped. He said, I'm not worthy to be in your presence. I see who you are and I should not be here. You should not be with me and I should not be with you because you are holy with authority and I am a sinful fallen creature. I have no business in your presence. Depart from me. But Jesus said to him, don't be afraid.

From now on, you'll be catching men. So Christ showed mercy and kindness to him, even in that supernatural display of his divine authority. Now, beloved, that brief overview there, these signs that we have looked at show the authority of Christ over all things, seen and unseen, physical and spiritual. It is a comprehensive authority over all. And those who saw it at the time recognized it and responded to him.

They acknowledged the authority of his teaching. We've seen amazing things today. Depart from me. I'm a sinful man. They all saw it. It was manifest to them, for God made it manifest to them. So Christ has all authority. Now, as we build a Christian mind, you and I are in a different position compared to those earthly witnesses of the earthly ministry of Christ.

We have a different situation. We live after that. We live after he walked on the earth and did all of these things. How are we to know? How are we to receive these things with authority? How are we to know that these things are true?

This is a problem. Christ is not with us now. He's ascended up into heaven, and we cannot see him. We cannot observe him. So how do we know anything about him with authority?

He did not write any books of his own. He did not record his own words, his own deeds. So how do you and I in this day and age know anything reliable about him whatsoever? Because his earthly life is done.

We can't transport back in time to see it with our own eyes. So how do we know anything reliable about him? Well, beloved, that brings us to our third and crucial point here this evening, is that authority rests in the apostles. And, oh, is this a dear, dear doctrine for our souls. All authority belongs to God, part of being God. All authority belongs to Christ, who manifested the authority of God when he was on earth. And so all authority, Christ has all authority, and we'll see that stated by him in his own words in just a moment.

Beloved, watch this. Because all authority belongs to Christ, he has the prerogative to delegate that authority to whomever he wishes. He can delegate authority as he sees fit. And no one can challenge that, because it's his authority to do with as he pleases. And as you study the Scriptures, particularly in the New Testament, what you find is this, is that by divine prerogative, that same Jesus conferred his authority on the twelve apostles. They have spiritual authority directly from Jesus Christ in order to exercise the ministries that was given to them. This is essential to understanding New Testament Christianity.

This is essential to protecting yourself from false claims to spiritual authority and new revelation. The things that we are discussing here this evening are of foundational significance. This is a matter of, as I said earlier, this is a matter of first principles when it comes to New Testament Christianity. And again, we're going to look at this over two or three messages. Not all of it can fit into the time we have remaining here this evening. How are we to approach, how are we to think about the authority that the apostles received from the Lord Jesus?

Well, we'll go through this and get as far as we can in the time remaining. First of all, understand that the third point here, authority rests in the apostles. How do we know that? How was that manifested? How did that transfer of authority, that delegation, better stated, delegation of authority from Christ to them occur? Well, first of all, Jesus chose them. Jesus chose the twelve apostles. And he chose them to uniquely be his representatives on earth. Mark chapter 3, and that word uniquely is essential to it all.

It is essential to it all. And I use uniquely advisedly because when you understand that it's a unique authority, you're not misled into following men who claim to be apostles or in apostolic succession today. So many people get deceived and go down that path because they have not given adequate heed to the clear teaching of scripture on these matters that we are discussing in our day right now. Jesus chose the twelve to uniquely be his representatives on earth. Mark chapter 3, verse 13. Mark chapter 3, beginning in verse 13.

And all I can do is just touch on it. Jesus went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired and they came to him. And he appointed twelve.

That number is significant. He didn't make a general appointment to the crowds. He chose twelve. He appointed twelve whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. Jesus appointed twelve men. That they, those twelve might be with him in a unique way. That he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

Jesus has authority to teach, to declare the truth from God, and now he is delegating authority to these twelve that he chose and the subsequent narrative names those twelve as happens in parallel passages of scripture. He wanted them to be with him. He sent them out to preach. He wanted them to have authority to cast out demons, the same kind of authority that he did. Now, beloved, understand, the apostles were more than the buddies of Jesus. Yes, they had a close, intimate relationship with him, but they had a unique purpose in the revelatory program of God that Jesus is establishing. They had unique authority, authority given to the twelve, not given to the crowds. And as it pertains to the teaching and the supernatural signs that would vindicate their own teaching in days to come, Jesus chose the twelve to fulfill his own sovereign will. You don't need to turn there, but when he was speaking to the twelve, minus Judas at this point, in John chapter 15, on the night prior to his crucifixion, he says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you should go and bear fruit. In that small room, in that small upper room, in this crucial transitional evening, at the end of his earthly ministry as he is about to go to the cross and bear the sins of all who would ever believe in him, Jesus looks, as it were, around the table and says, You didn't choose me.

You're here by my appointment. You're here by my will. I chose you. I appointed you for a purpose that you would go out and bear fruit. So Jesus chose these men in a way that he didn't choose others. And so he chose the apostles, first of all.

Secondly, as we talk about the apostles and New Testament authority and that authority rests in the apostles, how do we know that the apostles and the apostles alone have authority? Secondly, Jesus commissioned them. Jesus commissioned them. After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned the apostles to... Oh, this is so important, beloved. Jesus commissioned the apostles to speak in his absence with the very authority of Christ himself. Jesus chose them, and then he gave them authority to speak on his behalf. As an attorney has authority to speak on behalf of his client in a courtroom proceeding, in an even greater way, the apostles had authority to speak on behalf of Christ because Christ gave them that authority.

They did not take it to themselves. He gave them that authority. And we're going to look at a few passages here now. Matthew chapter 28, Matthew 28, verse 16, after his resurrection. Now, the 11 disciples, Matthew 28, verse 16, the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

This is what we're talking about. All authority, heaven and earth, it belongs to me. He's speaking to the 11, and now he gives them the command. You 11, you go, therefore, and you make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus asserts his authority, and then he gives the commission to the disciples to go out and to teach in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They were under divine commission, divine command to teach what they had heard from him. They were men on a mission. They were men under authority. They were men assigned to do a task in the name of Christ himself, in the name of the triune God himself.

So they were commissioned, and we carry out the evangelistic and teaching aspect of apostolic ministry, but we do it in a derivative way, not with the direct authority that was given to the apostles. Look over at the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24. Luke, chapter 24, and as you're turning there, you can put your finger at Acts, chapter 1 also. In verse 44, we read this as he speaks to the disciples again. He said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. In other words, you are the witnesses who are going to go out and proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins in my name to all nations. Verse 49, he promises the equipping power so that they're able to carry out the task. Verse 49, Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

You are to go out and be my witnesses. Look at Acts chapter 1, the opening of the book. Acts chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.

I realize we're going kind of quick here. Acts chapter 1, verse 1. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up.

By the way, Acts written by Luke, the same person who wrote the gospel that we were just reading from, Luke being a close associate of the apostle Paul. Verse 2, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He assigned the apostles, and then verses 7 and 8. He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

You are going to receive power from the Holy Spirit. Following the logic from the beginning of the book, Jesus chose apostles. He gave them their assignment, and he made provision that the Holy Spirit would come upon them in order for them to carry out what he had commanded them to do. In a similar but a distinct manner with the apostle Paul, look at Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26. Jesus chose these men.

He commissioned these men. And you remember when Jesus stopped Paul on the road to Damascus, Paul here in Acts 26 is describing to the authorities what happened on that day, which was now years in the past as he is speaking here. Verse 14, when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I'm appointing you as my servant and the witness to these things.

Verse 17, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Jesus chose Paul. He commissioned Paul and gave him power in order to carry out the commission, just as the same way that he had done with the 11 after his resurrection.

As you read the book of Acts, you see how the apostles founded the early church. Jesus chose them. He commissioned them. And, beloved, what he was doing was he was giving them the authority to speak on his behalf. They had full authority to speak on his behalf. Finally, the Holy Spirit empowered them.

I alluded to this on Sunday, so I won't turn to these texts. But Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon them. You read about that, the history of that in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost. He had promised the Spirit to them in John 14, 15, and 16. And the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Spirit in the life of the apostles, was this, he quickened their memory to recall the teaching of Christ. He guided their words so that they transmitted the history and interpretation of Christ without error in the New Testament books as we have them today. Beloved, not a church council some centuries after the writings were made, but the Holy Spirit himself was the guarantee that the apostles were trustworthy in what they said. Again, Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this, Christ enlightens and reveals his will and teaching to these apostles. He endows them with a unique authority, fills them with the needed ability and power, and gives them the teaching that is essential to the well-being of the church and God's people, end quote. Christ chose the apostles, he commissioned them, he empowered them. And in the book of Acts and in the epistles, you read what they did and what they taught with divine authority. Now, in some ways, in some ways, as we just think through this step by step, we're faced with the same difficulty, the same question that we had about Christ. Christ is not here with us physically, so we can't observe him with our own eyes like John did in 1 John 1, verses one through four.

We can't see him. In like manner, someone might say, but those apostles are all gone. They were all martyred with the exception of John, who was exiled to Patmos.

They're gone. How does that authority and that commission that they received, how does their authority help us today? How do we know that we have apostolic authority today? Now, the fact that this is an important question is shown by the fact that so many, so many different groups either say that they have modern day apostles now, or that there is, that they have a line of succession going back to the apostles. There's this intrinsic awareness that somehow we need the authority of the apostles resting upon a ministry in order to give it validity. What I've described just now are false claims to that authority, but it does illustrate the fact that this matter of apostolic authority, having authority directly from Christ, is a matter of grave significance, otherwise people wouldn't waste their time on it. How does the authority of the apostles help us today?

Now we come full circle to the theme of these set of messages, how to know the Bible is true. How does the authority of the apostles help us today? Point number four here, scripture speaks with apostolic authority. Scripture speaks with apostolic authority. And again, I just remind you, we're laying out, we're outlining some things this evening, there's much more to come about it. I am not at all pretending to be exhaustive in the treatment of the subject here tonight.

Just giving an overview, so you see the chain of command. All authority rests with God, authority rests with Christ, authority rests with the apostles, and now scripture speaks with apostolic authority. Beloved, this is beautiful and the wisdom of God is just astonishing. The apostolic men are gone, but the apostolic writings, they abide. The apostolic writings are with us. Apostolic authority is preserved and contained and expressed in the New Testament. As the apostles wrote or their close associates under the direction and supervision of the apostles, apostolic authority is preserved in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, beloved, Jesus Christ himself speaks through his apostles. When you read the New Testament, you are reading the word of Christ because you are reading what his divinely appointed, authorized representatives said on his behalf. And the apostles made this clear multiple, multiple times in their writings. Look at the book of 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14. As you're turning there, just a little side tangent, introduction to what we're about to say. Some of you may have read letter Bibles, and if you do, that's fine.

I don't have any problem with that. Publishers make a decision to print the words of Christ in red, and they stand out distinct from the rest of the Bible. This is not a hill worth dying on, but that is a misleading practice because the words of the apostles have equal authority.

The red letter suggests that there's more authority, there's something more important about the words of Jesus than the words of the apostle. That's not a right way to look at Scripture because Christ appointed the apostles to speak on his behalf. They were speaking with his divine authority. He commanded them to do what they did and to say what they said, and they wrote under the inspiration of the spirit of Christ, guiding them to make sure that they were expressing the very word of God, the very word of Christ so that there is no diminishment in authority, accuracy, or truthfulness between the words of Christ and the words of the apostles found in the New Testament. That is essential for you to understand so that you do not diminish the authority of God's word by pitting it against itself. No, in fact, the apostles made it plain that that was not the case. In 1 Corinthians 14, verse 37, the apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 37, if anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

That is astonishing, an astonishing assertion of authority. Paul tells the church at Corinth, what I'm writing to you is what the Lord commands. There is no distinction, no diminishment there. Verse 38, if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. You must recognize the unique authority of the apostles or you're not a Christian. Look at 1 Thessalonians, turning a few pages further deeper into your New Testament. Over Ephesians and Colossians, you come to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. And what Paul means by this is distinct from anything that man can rightfully claim today. When we say, thus saith the Lord, we better be saying and look at this chapter and verse.

So we're pointing people to biblical authority. Someone saying, thus saith the Lord, and adding something to the Bible is a blasphemous denial of what Christ established so that his church would know his word and his shepherding presence among them. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, Paul, yes, Paul saying, when you received our teaching, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Paul commends the Thessalonians. He says, I thank God for his work in your hearts, and his work in your heart is shown by this. When you heard my teaching when I was in your midst, you received it not as simply a mere human instruction. You received it as an authoritative word from God himself.

Paul could say that because he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Turn further back in your Bibles past the book of Hebrews to the letter of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 1 and 2.

2 Peter 3, 1 and 2. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. That, here's what I want you to remember, that. You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior. Remember what the Lord and Savior commanded you, and how did that command come to you? It came through your apostles. The commandment of Christ through the apostles.

The apostles being the vessels through which Christ spoke to the church. And now we have their writings, we have their teaching preserved for us in the New Testament over in verse 15. 2 Peter 3, count the patience of our Lord as salvation just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. The word scripture indicating the word of God, Peter alludes to the writings of the apostle Paul, and he says Paul is writing and speaking as do the other scriptures. And Paul's writings are put on an equal plane with the other scriptures. One last one, 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Who you listen to, beloved, as the authoritative voice of God, what you listen to, what you esteem, what you defer to, what you obey, what you recognize as the word of God is a definitive expression of the reality or the falsehood of your salvation.

The apostles leave no room for any other conclusion. 1 John chapter 4, verse 4, John says to his readers, Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. They've overcome the false teachers that were plaguing them and which prompted his letter.

You are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. Now watch what happens. In verse 4 he says you, speaking to the readers. Verse 5 he uses they, third person, and addresses the false teachers that had been troubling them.

Now in verse 6 he says, he uses a different pronoun that changes everything. He says we are from God, meaning we of the apostolic circle. There's the you, the true believers in the church.

There's the they, everyone else out in the world. Well who's left to be we? It's the apostles. It's the apostolic circle of which John was the last one. We, going back to the first four verses, we who saw this, we who heard this, we who touched them, we are the ones from God. He is asserting apostolic authority that is unique and distinct from anyone else. So that, he says, whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever knows God listens to the apostles, the true appointed apostles during the lifetime of Christ. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. Someone who disregards, diminishes apostolic authority. John says they don't know God.

And that's a mark of one who is lost. He says by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. There's the you in the church, the they in the world, and the we of the apostolic circle who, I remind you, heard Christ, saw Christ, looked on him, touched him.

And now what they had seen and heard, they proclaimed to the rest. So, beloved, how do we know the Bible is true? We know it by the authority of Jesus Christ.

We know it by the authority of the apostles that he appointed. And in the apostolic text, Jesus Christ speaks to his people as the savior of sinners. In the apostolic text, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, Romans 10. In the apostolic text, in the apostolic text, Christ appeals to sinners and invites them to salvation in a free, loving offer to come to him and to be saved. He speaks through the scripture. It's the word that creates faith, the word and the word alone. In the apostolic text, Jesus Christ himself feeds and sustains his church. In the apostolic text, Jesus Christ feeds and sustains you through what the apostles have recorded about his life teaching and their interpretation of it and in Revelation, the things yet to come. Beloved, our faith has a sure foundation, one that is built on the apostles, Ephesians 2, verse 20.

As I promised you, we will develop this theme more in the days to come. Let's bow together in prayer. Gracious Father, thank you for the word of God, the written word of God in the 66 and no more books of the Bible. What a precious gift that tells us in a reliable, true way the truth about Jesus Christ and the saving gospel by which our souls must be saved. Thank you for appointing the apostles.

Thank you for empowering them, commissioning them. We are the beneficiaries. We believe today, Father, through the word that the apostles gave. What an amazing thought to contemplate that their word from 2,000 years ago in chronology is the same word that leads us to believe in Christ today. Help us to grasp the implications, the ramifications and the magnificent reality of these things that we might be established rightly in the faith, that you might build in us a truly Christian mind. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much, friend, for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us again next time as Don begins a new message as we continue teaching God's people God's word on The Truth Pulpit.