Allen Jackson - Life Under Authority - Part 1
I started this study a few weeks ago and it’s just continued to grow. I feel like I’ve been on a bit of a learning spree, and so I’m just inviting you to join me under this general theme of «Who’s the boss»? And we all know, I know we’re in church and the answer is Jesus, but really, we wanna be. We wanna be the boss of our story. We have a dream and we want God to help us get it and we know what we want to happen and how quickly can we get there and…who’s the boss? It’s a very important question. And what I’ve invited you to imagine is that we lead our lives under the authority, all of us.
Bob Dylan told the truth. I don’t usually go to him for great theological breakthroughs, but when he said, «You gotta serve somebody,» he was telling you the truth. And in this session, I wanna look a bit at living under authority. I want you to be conscious of which authority you’re living under. And I want to remove from you, if I can, the idea that that’s a one-time decision.
We’ve got a little book of prayers called «Awaken Us». And I was talking about that today with somebody and, you know, I was awakened yesterday morning when my alarm went off. And I was awakened this morning when my alarm went off, and I hope that tomorrow I’m awakened when my alarm goes off. I don’t imagine that it’s a one-time experience. And I don’t know how… it’s a grand deception, that the enemy will convince us, oh, we don’t need to be awakened. I’m awake. Well, rest is a normal part of the cycle of life. It’s true physically, it’s true spiritually. And what I want to suggest is that we could be awakened day after day after day for the rest of all of your days to a new perspective, a new approach, a new portion of the person and the character and the majesty of God.
What if we decided to lead our lives on a journey of awakenings? We’re so determined to go, «Oh, I’m mature. I’m grown up. I’m a fully grown mature man of God». Bless your heart. Must be a burden to carry that around all the time. I much prefer the posture of, you know, I’m learning, I don’t know everything yet. I want to know more. I want to learn more. I’d like to understand better. Well, this whole notion of living under authority, I’m not talking simply about new birth or conversion. I believe in that, but there’s some components of this I don’t think we’re very ready to accept. I’m gonna start with there’s some fun lines in this to me, and part of this living under authority, there’s some things that are just none of your business.
You don’t need to know. «Well, I wanna know». Don’t care. There’s a God, he’s sovereign, we’re not. And he hadn’t told us everything. It’s true about our lives, it’s true about our pathways, it’s true about some of the bigger… it’s true about scripture. Our Bible is the story of Adam and Eve, God creating, bringing order to the earth, giving human beings authority over that earth, and how those human beings, if they so choose, can have a relationship with God. That’s the story. He doesn’t tell us everything. And we try to make it everything and it isn’t. «Where’d God come from»? I don’t know. «Where did the dinosaurs go»? I’m not really sure. «Well, I met somebody who knows».
Well, I’m happy for them. I mean, there are some things we can deduce, there’s some things we can speculate about, but what you can know from this book if you want to know is how you can have a relationship with the Creator of heaven and earth and spend eternity as a part of his kingdom. That’s what this book is good for. But there’s some things he said no. I brought you some samples. Acts chapter 1 and verse 6, «When they met together». These are the disciples. These are Jesus’s best friends. They’ve just had a 40-day seminar on the kingdom of God after the Resurrection. If you watched your teacher be tortured to death, buried, and they showed back up alive, how many of you think you’d take better notes? Me too.
So at the end of the seminar, «when they met together, they asked him, 'Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? '» Plain language, are you gonna throw the Romans out? «And he said to them, 'That’s not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority.'» What did he say? Good old Tennessee Southern vernacular: «It’s none of your business». «Well, well, well, well, well». He just said that’s not for you to know. It intrigues me. I’ve been on this journey for a while. I spend a big chunk of it around Christians, and we try so hard to explain what God said we can’t know. We write books on it, we come up with fancy, «The Hidden Keys to Secrets». I’m like, «You’re gonna outsmart God»?
No! Look at John 21. This isn’t like a subtle thing. This happens over and over. «Jesus,» this is, again, this is post Resurrection. He’s been helping Peter. Peter needed a little bit of restoration. He stumbled a bit when the pressure was on, but they all stumbled. Peter has just been a little more vocal about it. He wasn’t gonna be like the rest of them. And Jesus is helping to reinstate him. «And he said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God». He said, «When you’re old, they’ll bind your hands and take you where you don’t want to go». «And then he said to him, 'Follow me! '»
So Peter said this little personal…Jesus gave him a prophetic picture of his future, and it wasn’t very comfortable. Are you okay with that? He didn’t say, «Peter, you know, as you age, you’re going to do so gracefully. Your investments will flourish». He said, «Peter, when you’re old, it’s gonna be a hard way to go». We don’t talk about our faith like that very much. «Peter, there’s gonna be some things asked of you». I read with a group this morning to begin the day, a passage from one of Peter’s letters that he wrote, and he said, «If you bear in your body the physical pain of identifying with our Lord, it will change how you act in this world».
And it wasn’t a theory to him. He had scars, physical scars, because of his identification with Jesus. And Jesus has just given him that little prophetic window picture, «and Peter turns and he saw the disciple whom Jesus loved was», he saw John, «and Peter asked him, 'Lord, what about him? ' And Jesus said, 'If I want him to remain alive until I return, that’s none of your business. Follow me.'» John’s not your business, Pete. You follow me. How many times you get caught up, does the devil use comparative theology to sidetrack you? «Oh, I can’t believe the Lord blessed that person. I know I’m better than they are. How could God do that for them? I know them». And I can hear what the Lord says: «Shut up. It’s none of your business». «Well, I don’t like it». «Yeah, but I’m Lord».
You see, we don’t really lead our lives like we’re under authority. We lead our faith lives like once we get our ticket punched, God should be paying attention to us, because we’ve all been taught somewhere along the line, you know, we’re kings and priests, and I believe that and that we have the authority of an ambassador of the kingdom. You do, but the ambassador doesn’t get to tell the king what to do. Who’s the boss? There’s a larger passage in Matthew 24. Jesus is teaching. This is prior to his crucifixion. He said, «Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father».
Jesus said nobody knows. The angels don’t know. He said, «I don’t even know». How many books are written, trying to tell us they know? If I title a message, «How to know this is the last day,» it would get more clicks online than any other title I can pick. It embarrasses me. It’s like clickbait for goofy Christians. I want to put a subtitle in: «If you’re illiterate, you’ll click on this». Because Jesus said we don’t really know. But he doesn’t stop there. He’s really helpful. He gives us some really good coaching. He said we can know the season. You know, we’re at the end of spring, the beginning of summer, things are bursting with life. It looks very different than the end of October. Everything around us is dying then.
So that’s the season we’re in, he says, and so he’s gonna describe the season before he comes back. He says, «As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man». Let me ask you a question. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. We hear lots and lots of conversations about this tremendous revival. What’s gonna happen and I… I believe in that. I believe God is moving. But Jesus said it’ll be like it was in the days of Noah. Noah preached a long time, and he only got eight people on the boat and they were family. He said it’s gonna be very much like that, so darkness is gonna be intense, pervasive, and then he gives us a little description.
«So it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man». He said it twice. There’s an emphasis in it. What intrigues me, it was a wicked, God judged the earth for what was happening in Noah’s day, but Jesus didn’t highlight any of the ungodly behavior. He highlighted behaviors that seemed pretty normal. He said they’ll be eating and drinking, marrying and being given into marriage.
If you add another passage, he added buying and selling. Nothing immoral, nothing ungodly. They’re just gonna be so engaged in the world, they’ll be completely unaware of what God is doing. Even if there’s animals lining up, even if there’s a boat being built in the middle of a field where there’s no lake. Even if there’s somebody that’s been telling you about the righteousness of God, you’re gonna be so engaged in what you’re doing and chasing it and tracking it down that it’ll be just like it was in the days of Noah. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to bring more amplification.
Remember the comment. Remember the question. He’s talking about the days when he returns. He said, «Nobody knows about the day or the hour,» but you can look for some characteristics. «Two men will be in the field; and one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; and one will be taken and the other left». Again, it speaks to a complete lack of awareness. No situational awareness at all. And then he gives us some coaching. «Therefore», therefore is a summary word, it means because of everything I’ve said, «keep watch, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will come». He said again, «You don’t know». «But I wanna know». «But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be made ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you don’t expect him».
What do we know about his return? It’ll be unexpected. So I think we can know a season, but that for some reason it won’t have the clarity. Jesus said, «You won’t expect it». And that seems odd to a group of people that are anxiously awaiting for the return of the Lord. But his coaching to us was keep watch. Stay ready. Be packed, have your go bag. Don’t be presumptive. I can walk you through a number of parables where Jesus is giving further amplification to this theme, but I’m not gonna do it. It’s just there are things that we don’t know, and I talk to people all the time who have diminished their spiritual formation. They’ve hindered their growth. They’ve sidelined themselves because there was some event, activity, something in their life, that they didn’t like and they don’t understand it and they’re not moving.
I think it’s okay to tell God you don’t like his job performance. I have done that. I think you can be angry at God. I’ve been there. But at the end of the day, you have to reconcile. God has many reasons to be angry with us. And we trust him to show us grace and mercy in a pathway towards forgiveness. We have to respond to God in the same way. We have to forgive and be forgiven. And I want to invite you out of the shadows, out of a half-hearted effort, deconstruct your shrines to season that you preferred better, and say, «Lord, I wanna follow you forward». «Well, that isn’t easy».
I’m not suggesting it’s easy. There’s so much in scripture we don’t… I don’t know why Joseph had to go to prison. It seemed to me that it was enough punishment that his brothers sold him as a slave. I don’t know why he had to be falsely accused. I don’t know. I mean, the list of things we don’t know. Why did Paul have to be beaten almost to death five times? Says: «He sought the Lord and he asked him about it and the Lord said, 'My grace is sufficient for you.'» Well, gee, I don’t like that. I mean, there’s a lot we don’t know and we need the humility to say that.
What we have to say is, «I am under the authority of the King. And I have raised my hand and I’m gonna run my race. I’m going to complete my course. I will not stop. In the name of Jesus, I will finish triumphantly». Are you with me? We get instructions all through the New Testament. It said: «Think about these things, if it’s lovely and pure and honest and true». You know why we’re given that coaching? Because our brains and our heads and our hearts get filled with stuff that’s not lovely and honest and pure. It may be true, but it’s not lovely. Stop thinking about it.
This whole notion of a life under authority, I wanna spend a few minutes with it because I believe it can bring freedom to us. It’s begun a freedom in me in a remarkable way of late. Again, I think we have this imagination of our faith where we kind of negotiate with God what we want. And he loves us and he gives us a free will and we have choice and I don’t think God is against us doing what we want, but I think God intends for us to do what he wants. And I think the real evidence that we’re maturing in our faith is that when the Bible says God will give us the desires of our heart, I don’t really think that means that God gives us our Christmas wish list.
I think it means God puts a desire for him in our heart, that we have a heart change. We got too many people sitting in churches with their Bibles and doing stuff and they’re filled with carnal, selfish, temporary objectives and goals and they’re asking God to fulfill them. And I think God in his grace and mercy tolerates some of that carnality, but it limits us. We lead lives under the authority of the King. I go back to that centurion that caused Jesus to be astonished at his faith, and he said, «Look, I got authority. I tell people what to do, they do it, and if you’ll say the word, my servant will be okay». And Jesus goes, «Well, I haven’t met anybody like this». He gets this spiritual authority thing. And he’s not even one of us.
Look at Genesis 22. It says: «Abraham. God said to Abraham,» he’s waited his whole life for a son. «And God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, '» God understands the context: you’ve got one and he’s important to you, «'and go to the region of Moriah.'» Moriah, spoiler alert, is Calvary. God sends Abraham to sacrifice his son on the mountain where God’s gonna sacrifice his. «He said, 'Abraham, go offer your son as a sacrifice, sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.' Early the next morning Abraham went to his Small Group and said, 'I had the most horrible dream. But I rebuked it and I want you to pray for me I’ll never have that nightmare again.'» No, it says: «The next morning Abraham got up and he saddled his donkey, and he took with him his servants and his son Isaac, and enough wood for the burnt offering».
Are you kidding me? He didn’t fast and pray for 40 days. He didn’t say, «Well, I’m gonna seek… I need confirmation». He got up the next morning and saddled his donkey, and said, «Isaac, we gotta go». I don’t have a frame of reference for that. We don’t live like this. Jonah, you know the Jonah story. I just brought you the introduction. It says: «The Word of the Lord came to Jonah, and said, 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.'» He didn’t say, «Jonah, how do you feel about a road trip? Hey, Jonah, would you be willing… I need a few days, Jonah. Jonah, you got some gifted verbal skills, Jonah. You’ve got the gift of an evangelist, Jonah». He said, «Jonah? Nineveh». «But Jonah ran away from the Lord».
He went the opposite direction, literally. «He went to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. And after paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed». You know how it worked out. Jonah got a little fishy. In chapter 3, it says: «The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message I give you.'» Spoiler alert, Jonah obeyed the Word of the Lord. What’s the expectation? Well, Jonah should have obeyed the Word of the Lord the first time. We don’t live like that either. «It wasn’t a good time for me». «It wasn’t convenient». «It was spring break, we had a plan». Folks, this is so far away from the way our faith has been constructed and ordered and we’ve imagined the hierarchy of it.
You know, we think, «Well, God, I didn’t wanna do that. It’s not my gift. I’m not an evangelist. I don’t know anybody in Nineveh». You know why Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh? He was savvy enough, politically aware enough, to know that Assyria is the rising empire and that if Assyria keeps growing, they’re going to subjugate Israel and they will, in fact. But he doesn’t want something good happening in Nineveh. He wants them wiped out. So God said, «I want you to go». He said, «No, I’m going the other way». And God didn’t say, «Well, I’ll find somebody else».
See, we live, «If I don’t wanna do it, God will do somebody, he’ll do somebody else». Well, he may, but it’s not like you get to get back in line and go, «I didn’t wanna go to Nineveh, but I would like to go to Florence. I really have had my heart set on some Italian». Well, that’s not the nature of this equation. God didn’t say, «Abraham, you know, just find somebody». Do you know, the name is Isaac, and now. But these aren’t some, I could give endless, Exodus chapter 3 is Moses. I chose familiar narratives because you know their backstories and I think it’s easier to understand the principle.
In Exodus 3 he’s recruiting Moses and he says, «So now, go. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt». Moses wasn’t looking for an assignment. He’s got a day job and a family and he’s doing pretty good, and Egypt didn’t work out so well the first time. «And Moses said to God, 'No. Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? ' And God said, 'Well, if you feel that way about it, I’ll find somebody else.'» «Moses, go»! We don’t have that imagination.
«You know, I went to church and I just couldn’t worship the Lord because… Somebody was in my seat». Could you imagine seeing the King: «You know, I’d have worshiped you more if those people who were in row 4 on the aisle and they knew that’s where I wanted to be. They did it on purpose». Folks, we’re under authority. And what we’ve demonstrated is that it isn’t the authority of the King. See, we act like there’s some third option. «Well, I’m not really like fully into, like, crazy obedience. I’m born again». And we’ve crafted some faith that does not even reflect what we’re invited to in scripture.