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If any semblance of order is to be maintained in the world in which we live, it is essential that authorities be established and invested with the power to make and enforce laws, to set up necessary facilities and to provide protection against enemies. Most acknowledge this need.
However, the human race has become very suspicious and wary of those to whom this power has been given. This is not without good reason, for so often in human history and in everyday human affairs, this authority has been misused and, in both large and small ways, has been turned against those it should be used to protect.
This is the world’s authority structure to which Jesus referred when he said:
"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them." (Mark 10:42)
It is in this structure that laws, regulations and decrees are originated at the top and are passed down through the authority hierarchy until they are given to the people and their application enforced.
History all too clearly shows us how quickly seemingly benign authority can turn against its subjects, using and oppressing them to maintain and extend its own power and control. History also shows us how devastating the effects of such corruption of power can be upon human life.
Jesus clearly taught that the authority structures of the church were to be different from the world. They were not just to be more benign, but were to be based upon an entirely different concept of authority and leadership, the proper exercise of spiritual authority being based upon a completely different set of principles.
Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45)
A large part of the church of this present age does not follow these principles. Rather the church structures that exist are fundamentally the same as the world, except that they are theocratic, in the sense that, at least in theory, God is at the top. Such structures survive by teaching that laws and regulations originating from God are received at the top and passed down through the clerical hierarchy, until they reach the children of God, where they are proclaimed and, in a variety of subtle and not so subtle ways, enforced.
This type of church leadership did not exist in New Testament times, but became evident certainly by the time that Christianity became the state religion. In other words, not only did the world accept the church at that time, but the church accepted the ways of the world in many critical respects including that of the exercise of authority.
Over the centuries, at critical points in church history, there have been (usually painful) breaks away from these authoritarian worldly structures, only to form what eventually became a copy of the old, perhaps not as cruel and oppressive, but based upon the same principles nevertheless.
This is simply because, while many things have changed as God has been restoring lost truth to the church, the basic church authority structure has not. In many cases it was not long before similar clerical hierarchies were set up and the same errors were being perpetrated, different only in scale and severity from that which went before.
Why has Jesus’ concept of church structure been so soundly rejected by church leadership over the centuries? For at least one very good reason.
Those who grow in grace as God intends develop their own faith, their own relationship with the Lord and learn to stand on their own two spiritual feet. In so doing, they become spiritually independent of the church hierarchy. This is anathema to those in positions of traditional church leadership who desperately work to ensure that their membership stays psychologically dependent upon and in a place of subordination to the authority structures of the institutions. To do this they need to keep the people spiritually impoverished and ignorant of the realities of the “unsearchable riches of Christ” in any but the most theoretical and unreachable terms. In this they are diametrically opposed to the work of the Holy Spirit within the Body of Christ.
Thus has been produced a body of believers without spiritual initiative and who are spiritually and emotionally dependent upon the clergy, a situation which enables those who wish to "lord it over" God’s people to do as they please.
Those who exercise worldly authority, be it in the world or in the church, have the power to tell others what they must and can't do or say, and to punish, in some way or other, those who would challenge their authority.
Spiritual authority is fundamentally different in that it is not directed at controlling God's people, but rather at controlling the spiritual environment in which they live.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:10-12)
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:3-5)
God's primary purpose in the exercise of spiritual authority is to free his people to experience the fullness of the Redemption that they possess in Christ and to find the ability to yield themselves unreservedly to the dealings of the Holy Spirit at the deepest levels of their being (Phil. 2:13). This means that spiritual authority is not something that is exercised over God's children. Rather it is exercised on behalf of God's children.
In other words, worldly authority is about coercion while spiritual authority is about enablement.
Consider for a moment, a platoon of soldiers advancing through a dense tropical jungle. One of them is out front hacking away at the dense undergrowth, cutting down the bamboo and clearing a path through the leaves and tree branches. The other members of the platoon then walk down the cleared path not because they have to but because they can. The easiest and most effective way has been created by the efforts of those that have gone before them.
This is precisely what Jesus told us that he has done for all mankind when he said:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30)
This turns the concept of “leadership” within the Body of Christ on its head.
Spiritual authority is distributed among the members of the Body of Christ along with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:7-11, 27-31; Rom. 12:3-8). In other words, spiritual gifts carry with them the authority to take control of those spiritual forces which oppose the purpose of God in the world and particularly in the lives of his children.
And so the list goes on. As God’s people exercise the gifts with which he has entrusted them, be they great or small, they do so with the authority that accompanies those gifts. As spiritual gifts are purely for the benefit of the Body, the exercising of this authority makes those who administer them servants, not masters, of God's people (Luke 17:7-10).
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:10-11)
We need be in no doubt about the source of this authority.
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matt. 28:18-20)
The man Christ Jesus has been given all authority over mankind, over the nations, over angels and demons and, indeed, over the universe itself. He told the apostles that, on the basis of this authority, they were to preach and teach the Word of God to (make disciples of) all nations. In other words he was distributing that authority among those to whom that task was given so that they could effectively carry out the great commission. Without it they could do nothing that was of any value in the Kingdom of God. Neither can we.
In the outworking of this principle of taking the place of a servant, we have no greater example than that of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5-8)
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
It is one of the great truths of the Gospel, that he who created the universe and who rules the worlds by the word of his power, came into this world as a man and took the place of a servant to those he had created. When Jesus washed the disciples feet (John 13:4-10) it was not merely a gesture of kindness but the expression of a fundamental and universal spiritual truth. Those who will take a position of authority and power in the kingdom of God will first take the place of a servant.
Having completed his work as a servant on earth, Jesus ascended into heaven where the greatest of honours awaited him.
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11)
How this name and position which were conferred upon him could be greater than that which he already possessed rather defies the imagination. Nevertheless, the Scripture plainly teaches that, as a result of his ministry upon earth as a servant to the human race, God conferred upon him the greatest of great names and elevated him to the highest of high places in the universe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Eph. 1:19-23)
In this exalted position, Jesus remains, as incredible as it may seem to us, in the place of a servant.
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. (Heb. 3:1)
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Heb. 7:25)
But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. (Heb. 8:6)
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)
Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant. He is our High Priest, Intercessor and Advocate. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father exercising these ministries on behalf of the church which is his body. He who is above all is still taking the place of a servant, ministering to the needs of his people.
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