Date : The Ascension of Our Lord, May 13, 2010

Text : Matthew 28:16-20

Title : Authority!

If your doctor told you that you had to drive to Port Huron and purchase at least $100 worth of merchandise from Sears, how would you react? Besides wondering what was up your doctor’s sleeve, you would finally decide that a medicine man doesn’t have the power to tell you to do such a thing. The same would be if the police busted into your house and ordered you to eat all of your vegetables, or else you couldn’t have dessert—or if your pastor threatened excommunication from the church if you did not laugh at his lame jokes.

We want to know who has authority, and from whence it came? We appreciate why, whenever we see a wedding in a movie, they have the minister say, "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife."

Three years ago, when I had the privilege of uniting my daughter, Erin, with Craig, I was concerned that I had the power to do so in the state of Georgia. I was not presuming that, just because I am a minister, I can go around marrying people anywhere I want. As the lady at the courthouse in Augusta told me that I had the power to authorize the marriage, she added, "Your name and address will be on the license, so we’ll know where to find you if we need to."

As a few of us gather on this Thursday in May to observe the ascension into heaven of our Lord Jesus, this is a proper point of comparison. Because Jesus has ascended to the throne of God, we know where to find Him. And, in ascending, He has put His name and address on the license that we need to perform the work that He gave us to do.

With that, we can answer two vital questions: where do we get the power and authority to proclaim the Gospel and administer the sacraments, and where did Jesus get the power and authority to commission us with, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you"?

Where did Jesus get the power to authorize such baptizing and teaching? He got it from His Father. Since His Father is the author of creation—the first person of the Holy Trinity, who made all things through His Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, along with the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit—since we are talking about the Godhead by whom all things exist, we are talking about the power source.

We are talking about the author. The author of something has the authority. Indeed, you hear the word author in the word authority. Since God wrote the rules of creation, He also has the power to write the rules of salvation. Since He wrote the rules of salvation in the person of His Son—Acts 4:12 is the best memory verse for this: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved"—since God the Father wrote the rules of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has the power to commission them to be carried out.

Since Christianity has been around for so long, and is so widespread, and since most of us have been Christians for most or all of our lives, this is something that we completely take for granted. But, let us not. Let us especially not take this for granted as we live in a world where the so-called god of a certain religion has commissioned its disciples to kill those who are its enemies, and the so-called gods of other religions dictate to their disciples that there are many paths to heaven, and there are any number of so-called gods to whom millions are listening for their rules of life and salvation.

Just because Christianity has been around so long, and is so widespread, doesn’t make it true. For that matter, Buddha lived before Jesus; does that make Buddha’s religion more true than Jesus’?

What is it that makes your religion, Christianity, true? From whence its power, and the authority to proclaim God’s forgiveness of sins, eternal life in Paradise, and salvation from death, devil, and damnation?

If Christianity did not have the power and authority to provide you with real things—with real forgiveness, real life, real salvation—then these would be phantom gifts; they would have no more authority than your doctor telling you where to shop, or the police making you eat your vegetables.

The good news, that the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation which are proclaimed and dispensed in Christianity, and in this Christian church, is that the power and authority comes from the author of creation, who is also the author of salvation.

It is precisely because God’s Son fulfilled His Father’s good and gracious will, that He had the power to proclaim to His disciples, right before He ascended to heaven’s throne of power, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations . . ."

Jesus Christ has real power—power to bless the proclamation of His name with forgiveness, power to bless baptismal waters with salvation, power to bless bread and wine with the presence of His eternal life—because He fulfilled His Father’s good and gracious will by laying down His holy life for the sin of the world.

Since the Father is the source of all, the Son receives the source of all. From the source of all—the power to create, simply by speaking the world into being—the Son, Jesus, draws from the same power, with the same authority, to forgive, make alive, and save, simply by speaking.

That’s the source of Jesus’ power and authority, and it sets the table of your pastor’s power and authority, which comes from the Christian Church’s power and authority.

Jesus did not leave us powerless, but bestowed upon His followers everything that He accomplished with His Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension. He took from His authority. He put it upon us so that we have authority—real power to forgive, make alive, and save.

Thus, you have confidence in what takes place in this church. With the authority of God the Father given to God the Son, God the Holy Spirit works the power of Jesus in every proclamation of your pastor forgiving your sins, declaring the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as he names you under the water of Baptism, and consecrating the bread and wine with the very words of Jesus Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

Real power. Real authority. We have it.

We have it, because Jesus has it. Jesus has it, because Jesus fulfilled His Father’s good and gracious will by sacrificing His holy life for the life of the world. And, the Father has real power and real authority because He is—with the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity is the power source, the author of creation.

So, you worship with confidence and you live in real hope, because your church and your pastor have real power and true authority from the Author of both your creation and salvation—from the only One who has ever risen from the dead and ascended to heaven—from Jesus Christ, who sits on the Throne of Power, the throne from which He continues to commission His church to go, to proclaim His saving name and to baptize into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Just think about it, dear children of God. You have been baptized into the name of all power and authority. It is my privilege, having been commissioned by Jesus Christ, who has the authority to commission, to pronounce you forgiven of all your sins, eternally alive, and saved for the perfect life of Paradise, in the name of Jesus. Amen.