{"id":10178,"date":"2023-02-27T00:00:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=10178"},"modified":"2023-03-01T09:51:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T23:51:45","slug":"going-with-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2023\/02\/27\/going-with-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Going with Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Matthew 28:18\u00a0<em><sup>18<\/sup>And after coming, Jesus said to them, \u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The closing verses not only end the Gospel of Matthew but start the mission to reach the world. These few verses serve as the conclusion to the whole Gospel. The last words of Jesus recorded by Matthew sum up the call to faith and following. Matthew records very little about when and where this took place. His concern is not on the story but on the words and what they mean for followers of Jesus. His disciples were obedient to the news to go and meet Jesus in Galilee. Jesus found them there waiting in obedience and expectation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Each part of Jesus&#8217; statement is significant. First, he reminds the disciples of the crucial message recorded in Matthew&#8217;s Gospel:\u00a0his\u00a0<em>authority<\/em> (<em>exousia<\/em>). The person and position of Jesus are central topics of this Gospel. Matthew has emphasized who Jesus is as Immanuel, God with us. Jesus walked among people, showing the way to God. His authority is ultimate\u00a0<em>in heaven and on earth<\/em>. This idea is echoed in Philippians 2:9-11 and reflects the early Christian confession of faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and exalted over all. Jesus states that this authority <em>has been given<\/em>, meaning that God the Father is the one who exalted him, putting him in the highest place of honor at his right hand.\u00a0<em>Therefore<\/em> in verse 19 shows the result or consequences of Jesus&#8217; authority. Because he has all authority, he can send out his disciples as extensions of his authority. They did not need to fear or doubt. They would not go out by their own effort, strength, thinking, or authority. We can go out to our own mission knowing that Jesus is with us and has empowered us to do as he commands.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For older posts, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/blog\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 28:18\u00a018And after coming, Jesus said to them, \u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.\u00a0 The closing verses not only end the Gospel of Matthew but start the mission to reach the world. These few verses serve as the conclusion to the whole Gospel. The last words of Jesus recorded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10197,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178\/revisions\/10197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}