Bill Johnson - Where Do Power and Authority Come From
I would like to suggest Jesus came with authority because he said yes to the mission, but he came with power because of the encounter. Your authority comes in your yes to the commission, but your power comes in the encounter. Jesus came to Earth commissioned by the Father. For clarity’s sake, Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and never stopped being God. He is not an ascended being who somehow attained some position; he is the eternal Son of God. Yet, the great mystery of Scripture is that he was 100% God while at the same time he became 100% man. If you can figure that out, please explain it to me. It’s the great challenge in conversation and teaching, but both realities are equally true. So, Jesus came to Earth having been commissioned by the Father.
1 John 3:8 tells us what the commission was: it says he came to destroy the works of the evil one. Planet Earth had been infected with the devil and the demonic horde, which helped to bring about absolute chaos, loss, death, and destruction. Jesus came to correct and destroy the devil’s works. The authority that he operated in was connected to his commission. Chris puts it best; he says you can’t be commissioned. Co-laboring would be like being commissioned; you can’t be commissioned until you come into submission to the primary mission. Jesus came with the mission of the Father and exercised the authority of heaven as a human being.
A policeman has authority, but he doesn’t have the authority to build a house without a permit. There are many political positions where someone has authority in economics or housing, but they can’t step outside of their assignment or mission. You and I have authority. Jesus, after his resurrection, stood before his 11 remaining disciples and, through them, all of humanity who would say yes to Jesus, and he said, «All authority has been given to me; therefore, go into all the world, preach the gospel, disciple nations, and teach them what I taught you.» Part of what he taught them was Matthew 10: to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils. That is part of the commission. It says, «Teach them what I taught you,» then he closes with this statement: «For I am with you always.» Jesus then commissioned his disciples.
Now, in Luke 9:1, the author of Matthew 10:8 says he gave power and authority to his disciples. Jesus came with authority; I don’t believe he came with power. He came with authority because he said yes to the mission, but he didn’t come with power. Instead, we see John the Baptist baptizing in water, and he is preaching to the crowd, saying, «There is one coming after me; I’m not even worthy to untie his shoes; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.» As he is preaching, he looks up on the banks of the river and sees Jesus. Jesus didn’t have a sign over his head saying, «I am the Christ.» John looked at him, and I like to describe it this way: every cell of John’s being came into realization and recognition that that is the Lamb of God. It wasn’t just a passing mental thought; it was a revelation that impacted the entirety of John’s being. He stopped and said, «Look, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.»
In other words, this was the moment he had been waiting for. Here he is—the scariest thing John ever experienced, I’m sure, happened in the moments that followed. Jesus walked up to him and said, «I want you to baptize me.» John knew that his baptism was a baptism of repentance; Jesus had nothing to repent for. He was baptized in what I would call an intercessory role. Intercession is essentially standing in the shoes of another and pleading their case as though it were your own. So, Jesus stands in the place of all those who would repent of sin in the years to come; he stands in their place and is baptized in water. John said an interesting thing: «I need to be baptized by you.» What did John just announce about Jesus? He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John was saying, «I need your baptism; you don’t need mine.» And John was out of season; he was not in the season where he could be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire because that would not come until after the death of Christ. Of course, John’s death preceded that, which is interesting. The Bible declares that John was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, but the least in the kingdom is greater than John. I would like to suggest that that baptism of the Holy Spirit gives you access to a reality in God that even John the Baptist did not have access to.
Back to the script here: so when Jesus gets baptized in water, when he comes up out of the water, Mark’s Gospel and Luke both, Mark 1 and Luke 3, say the heavens parted. The word used in Luke’s Gospel for the parting of the clouds is actually a violent term. The same word for «parting» is used twice in Matthew 27 to describe something that happened in the natural realm after the death of Christ. When he died in Matthew 27, it says that the veil in the temple, very tall, was torn from top to bottom—from God’s end to man’s. That veil, they say, is four to six inches thick in fabric, and it was ripped from the top to the bottom. In the same verse, it says the rocks around Jerusalem were torn in half.
So, imagine some angel coming down ripping rocks in half. In other words, we’re talking about a violent act; we are not talking about a gentle breeze separating clouds. The Bible describes the enemy as the prince of the power of the air. I would like to suggest that there is a figurative thing going on here where, when Jesus was baptized in water, there was a rending, a tearing of the heavens, and the Spirit of God came down through that opening, if you will, upon Jesus in the form of a dove and remained. He was baptized, if you will, in the Spirit at that point. The very next chapter is the first time we see Jesus walking in power.
So, I’d like to suggest Jesus came with authority because he said yes to the mission, but he came with power because of the encounter. Your authority comes in your yes to the commission, but your power comes in the encounter. Jesus gave authority and power to his disciples while they walked with him, but when he ascended to the right hand of the Father, he told his disciples in Luke 24, which is basically the same encounter or moment where Jesus gives his mission in Matthew 28, just two different chapters. 24 adds this one element: he says, «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you are clothed with power.» Here’s your authority: «All authority has been given to me; now therefore go.» So here’s the commission, but then in Luke’s Gospel, he adds this phrase: «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you are clothed with power.» Power comes in the encounter; authority comes in the commission.