Sermon illustrations on authority
Background
The Age of Suspicion
There are many titles that historians of the future may give our era, but one that they are certain to consider is “The Age of Suspicion.” People are suspicious of political authorities because they have lied so often. People are suspicious of economic authorities because financial markets have collapsed. People are suspicious of religious authorities because they have failed to act swiftly against abuse in the church. People are suspicious of scientific authorities because the products resulting from their discoveries have in many cases devastated the environment.
Preachers feel the loss of authority. I recall a group of older pastors who began their ministries shortly after World War II. Their first congregations granted them significant authority from the day they arrived. But beginning with the mid-1960s, each time they moved to a new pastorate, congregations granted them less initial authority than earlier in their careers. They had to earn authority by proving trustworthy over time.
Thomas H. Troeger, Sermon Sparks, Abingdon Press, 2011.
Christ’s Authority is of the Greatest Significance
The fact as such that Jesus possesses supreme divine authority is, even apart from its being acknowledged by all New Testament authors and by the whole of the Early Church, of the greatest significance for the study of the making of the New Testament. For it gives us the assurance that the Lord of all authority would have seen to it that, through the working of his power, an adequate and completely reliable account of and an authentic proclamation concerning the significance of His life and work were written and preserved for the ages to come.
Because the revelation of God in Christ was complete and ephapax . . . (once for all), it follows logically that the Lord to whom all authority in heaven and on earth is given would have regulated the history of the Early Church in such a way that the canon of the New Testament would be genuine and all sufficient.
Dressed in a Brief Authority
Shakespeare’s play, Measure for Measure is an exploration of the nature of power and mercy. Isabella, the novice nun, trying to persuade the tyrant Angelo to have mercy on her brother Claudio, utters these famous lines, which capture, perhaps better than any other, the ridiculous nature of human authority when it becomes absolute:
…man, proud man
Drest in a little brief authority
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape.
Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven
As make the angels weep.
Authority or power is something with which we are briefly clothed, but God laughs when we take it too seriously. To be powerless is something we all fear, so we anxiously remind ourselves of all our virtues and capabilities. Our instinct as human beings is to build our sense of worth, our self-confidence and value on our past achievements, looks, wealth, status, job or family.
Narcissism in the Pulpit?
A colleague of mine often says that ministry is a magnet for narcissistic personality—who else would want to speak on behalf of God every week? While the vast majority of people struggle with public speaking, not only do pastors do it regularly, but they do it with “divine authority.”
Taken from When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat Copyright (c) 2020 by Chuck DeGroat. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
Size is not Authority
I am a huge football fan and there have been several times in my life where I have either met or have happened upon an NFL player. Whenever this occurs, I can never get used to just how big these people are! When seeing them on television, where everyone else is just as large, it is sometimes difficult to really appreciate just how large-than-life NFL players really are!
We just don’t have a category in our minds for a Tyron Smith, an O-lineman for the Dallas Cowboys, who is 6’5” and 320 lbs or the 6’1” and 285 lbs of Aaron Donald who can also run a 4.6, 40 yard dash and has a 32” vertical jump!
But what is interesting is that when you watch an NFL game, there are seven additional people on the field who are always much, much smaller than every single player, and yet, each one of the players listens and does everything that these seven people tell them to do!
You would have probably guessed that these seven “small” people on the field are the referees and the reason why the much larger players listen to everything they say is because they know how to recognize authority.
Authority is not something that is earned through might or performance, but is rather given from some higher authority. The tenant farmers in today’s lesson might have been more powerful than the slaves and then the son of the vineyard owner, but failed to recognize their authority.
God will seldom show up in our lives as a 300 lb NFL lineman to make us do what we ought to do, but it is no less important for us to recognize His authority so as to listen and obey.
(This illustration is based upon a story that one of my professors told while I was at Dallas Seminary. I cannot remember who it was in order to give them credit, but I did take the core idea and made it my own here.)
Jeff Volkmer
Submission vs. Subjugation
Submission is not subjugation. Subjugation turns a person into a thing, destroys individuality, and removes all liberty. Submission makes a person become more of what God wants him to be; it brings out individuality; it gives him the freedom to accomplish all that God has for his life and ministry. Subjugation is weakness; it is the refuge of those who are afraid of maturity. Submission is strength; it is the first step toward true maturity and ministry.
Warren Wiersbe, On Being a Leader
When the Israelites Abandoned God’s Authority
In the Bible, the children of Israel fall into disastrous behavior patterns whenever they abandon the majestic authority of God revealed to them through Moses at Mount Sinai. In fact, they commenced rebelling and kicking at the Lord almost immediately after the Sinai revelation was completed.
While still on their forty-year extended camping trip in the desert, the Jews vexed Him by whoring after the women of neighboring Midian, joining an outright revolution against Moses under the radical reformer Korach, sending spies to reconnoiter the Holy Land and then declaring that they would rather return to pagan Egypt to be slaves again, and, of course, by fashioning the idolatrous Golden Calf.
Stories
Commanding the Waves
In the years 1014-1035 there ruled over England a Danish king named Canute. King Canute tired of hearing his retainers flatter him with extravagant praises of his greatness, power and invincibility. He ordered his chair to be set down on the seashore, where he commanded the waves not to come in and wet him. No matter how forcefully he ordered the tide not to come in, however, his order was not obeyed. Soon the waves lapped around his chair. One historian tells us that, therefore, he never wore his crown again, but hung it on a statue of the crucified Christ.
Source Unknown
Dressed in a Brief Authority
Shakespeare’s play, Measure for Measure is an exploration of the nature of power and mercy. Isabella, the novice nun, trying to persuade the tyrant Angelo to have mercy on her brother Claudio, utters these famous lines, which capture, perhaps better than any other, the ridiculous nature of human authority when it becomes absolute:
…man, proud man
Drest in a little brief authority
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape.
Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven
As make the angels weep.
Authority or power is something with which we are briefly clothed, but God laughs when we take it too seriously. To be powerless is something we all fear, so we anxiously remind ourselves of all our virtues and capabilities. Our instinct as human beings is to build our sense of worth, our self-confidence and value on our past achievements, looks, wealth, status, job or family.
“Neill!”
Neil Marten was a member of the British Parliament from 1959-1984. One day he was giving a group of constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the tour, the group happened upon the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, who happened to be dressed in the full ornamentation that went with his office. At one point in their interaction, Hailsham recognized the MP Marten and cried “Neill!” Not wanting to disobey the command of one so important, the band of visitors immediately fell to their knees.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
The Showdown Between Ambrose & Theodosius
In the Christian faith, we frequently take for granted how radically Jesus evens the playing field. No matter your wealth, your position, let alone your race or gender, all of us are equal in God’s eyes. No one is given special status or access to God over another. The Roman emperor Theodosius had to learn this the hard way. Theodosius established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, but that did not automatically make him a saint. When, after massacring thousands of citizens in Thessalonica, Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan refused to offer him communion.
In fact, Ambrose personally confronted Theodosius at the door of the church saying, “you cannot enter here with hands soiled by human blood.” Theodosius cunningly responded that if he was guilty of murder, so was King David, the man supposedly “after God’s own heart.” Ambrose’s response was equally as cunning: “You have imitated David in his crime, imitate him in repentance.” Eventually, Ambrose was able to get Theodosius to promise not to execute anyone sentenced to death until forty days had passed, and he was to perform penance before being admitted to communion.
Stuart Strachan Jr., Source Material from Roland Bainton, The Church of Our Fathers, 1941.
When Vasili Arkhipov Saved the World
Everyone knows that during the Cuban Missile Crisis we were perilously close to WWIII and nuclear Armageddon. Most people don’t know how close we were. Or how much we owe to Vasili Arkhipov.
Arkhipov was second-in-command of the Soviet diesel-electric submarine B-59 during the Cuban Missile Crisis — one of four such subs sent into the waters near Cuba in 1962. He was a distinguished officer, having acquitted himself with great courage during the 1961 nuclear accident aboard the nuclear submarine K-19.
It’s hard to imagine the stress the crew was under. Submerged deep in the ocean, they were unable to receive any messages from home — or even the civilian American radio they had picked up earlier in their cruise. They could not know whether war had broken out or not above. Complicating matters, the sub was hot — really hot. Not only was the submarine not really designed to operate in warm waters like the Caribbean, but their extended time under the surface meant that batteries were running low, the air conditioning had failed (temperatures were in excess of 120 degrees Fahrenheit), and carbon dioxide was accumulating.
And then the American vessels on the surface decided to drop depth charges on them.
During the Cold War, one of the tactics used by surface vessels when they detected a submarine was to drop signaling depth charges (practice depth charges) on the submarine. These low-powered charges aren’t dangerous, but they signaled to the submarine that “the game was up” and that they needed to surface.
So, with depth charges exploding in the water around them, the captain of the B-59 had to decide whether war had broken out on the surface and whether he was to carry out his orders in that event to launch nuclear torpedoes on American coastal cities.
The captain made the decision to launch and his political officer agreed. Had this order been carried out, thousands, maybe millions, of Americans would have instantly died in this first strike. Millions more, American and Soviet, would have died in the series of attacks and reprisals that would have followed.
Unusually, the agreement of the captain and political officer were not enough on the B-59. Arkhipov may have been second-in-command of the vessel, but he was also Commodore of the small fleet dispatched to Cuba. He had to agree, too. And he argued that they needed to wait for orders from Moscow.
The submarine surfaced and made contact with American destroyers and, receiving new orders from Moscow, returned home. His courageous dissent prevented nuclear disaster.
William Rowley
A Reminder of the Paradox of Christian Power and Authority
When you go into one of the great basilicas of the late Roman empire and you see a mosaic of Christ enthroned at the far end, you’re looking at the place where the emperor would sit. And the emperor would be sitting there either dressed in his armour or in cloth of gold with a diadem around his head.
So you’re looking to the throne, but who’s on it? This rather curious and disreputable wandering teacher. So you have a bit of a paradox in visual form there. The person who holds the emperor’s authority in cosmic terms isn’t just another soldier or administrator in uniform, but a philosopher, a sage.
So something’s being said there that is on the edge of paradox. It’s been suggested, quite credibly, that some of that tradition of representing Jesus borrows from the ways in which late Classical art used to depict Plato the philosopher or Homer the poet. So it’s a poet, a philosopher, it’s a wordsmith who’s sitting on the throne.
Article: “Rowan Williams & Neil MacGregor Discuss Faith and Visual Imagination,” The Telegraph, 2013.
The Transfer of Energy
In physics, power is defined as the transfer of energy. In a light bulb, for example, electricity is transferred into light and heat. A 100-watt light bulb is more powerful than a 60-watt light bulb because there is more energy transferred. The same is true in leadership. It is a leader’s ability to transfer their authority to others that actually gives them their power.
Simon Sinek, What Leaders Can Learn From Mandela’s Selflessness and Sacrifice
“Neill!”
Neil Marten was a member of the British Parliament from 1959-1984. One day he was giving a group of constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the tour, the group happened upon the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, who happened to be dressed in the full ornamentation that went with his office. At one point in their interaction, Hailsham recognized the MP Marten and cried “Neill!” Not wanting to disobey the command of one so important, the band of visitors immediately fell to their knees.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
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