Matthew 7:28-29 KJV
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The distinctive quality of Jesus' teaching; the thing that made it astonishing, and the thing that made it different than the scribes, is that He taught as one having authority. This distinctive has been an attractive one to Bible preachers wanting to be set apart from the scribes and wanting to follow the example of the Lord.
The problem is, we are not the Lord
Therefore much of what is preaching and teaching authoritatively has little and sometimes nothing to do with the Bible. We authoritatively teach and preach our own opinions and sometimes we do so knowing those opinions are not found in the Scriptures, but we deceive ourselves, believing "we also have the mind of Christ." By applying that passage to our opinions we give them equal authority to the Scriptures and force them upon our congregations as the Word of God.
For shame
We are not the Lord. We do not have His authority. Our opinions, no matter how sincerely held and no matter from whom we first learned them, are not on equal authority with God's Word. We cannot speak "ex cathedra."
Does that then mean we must speak as the scribes?
Is our message then merely opinion and repetition of what some other scribe said some other scribe said?
There is a way to teach with authority and that is to assume no authority at all except to declare what God has already declared. There is power in the Word of God. That which will distinguish the preacher from the world and will give his message authority is when it is consistently and completely the Word of God.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The distinctive quality of Jesus' teaching; the thing that made it astonishing, and the thing that made it different than the scribes, is that He taught as one having authority. This distinctive has been an attractive one to Bible preachers wanting to be set apart from the scribes and wanting to follow the example of the Lord.
The problem is, we are not the Lord
Therefore much of what is preaching and teaching authoritatively has little and sometimes nothing to do with the Bible. We authoritatively teach and preach our own opinions and sometimes we do so knowing those opinions are not found in the Scriptures, but we deceive ourselves, believing "we also have the mind of Christ." By applying that passage to our opinions we give them equal authority to the Scriptures and force them upon our congregations as the Word of God.
For shame
We are not the Lord. We do not have His authority. Our opinions, no matter how sincerely held and no matter from whom we first learned them, are not on equal authority with God's Word. We cannot speak "ex cathedra."
Does that then mean we must speak as the scribes?
Is our message then merely opinion and repetition of what some other scribe said some other scribe said?
There is a way to teach with authority and that is to assume no authority at all except to declare what God has already declared. There is power in the Word of God. That which will distinguish the preacher from the world and will give his message authority is when it is consistently and completely the Word of God.
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