Episode 363: I’m Talkin…Authority

I’m Talkin, episode 363 for March 30th, 2025.

This is Joel from the I’m Talkin microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week, we’re talking authority.

So this week I wanted to start out with a definition.

And I think we kind of have an idea of what authority is, but I like the definition and I’d like to start there.

And it says the power or the right to give orders.

And so that’s kind of interesting.

It kind of talks about position or maybe a given position, sometimes an earned position.

But when I think about the word authority today, I feel like there’s a struggle in the world.

It’s very many people like to fight against authority and that’s not always bad, but there is a time to recognize authority.

And in our me first culture, it’s like, you don’t need to tell me what to do and what gives you the right to tell me what to do.

And so there’s always that challenge of authority and it happens in the workplace, that happens in personal space.

There’s lots of ways that it happens.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

So this week, the word authority comes from Matthew 9, verses six through eight, where Jesus said, I will prove to you that the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.

Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, take up your bed and go home.

And the man jumped up and went home.

Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen and they praised God for giving humans such authority.

So you see the word authority a couple places here.

One is the fact that Jesus is proving to those who doubt his position that he has the authority to forgive sins.

That’s where he started in that story in the verses previous to this ones that I mentioned is that he didn’t say you’re healed or anything like that.

He said your sins are forgiven and that’s what created the problem.

And so the proof of healing him, this paralyzed man, showed Jesus authority to also forgive sins.

And so it’s a very challenge to the religious people of the time.

And so the thing is that as Christians, we have this authority as well, not to forgive sins, but we have the authority of God living in us, the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

But it’s not something that we get because of anything we’ve done.

It’s what we get because of what Christ has done, because he has the authority, the authority.

It was interesting that the verse says, they praise God for giving humans such authority.

And that’s just kind of the idea of what they’re seeing is that Jesus is a human with the authority to heal.

And so they feel like it’s given to humans, but it really only is given to Jesus.

And then Jesus gives that power to others as we see in the New Testament going forward.

So the one thing that we know and we stand on as Christians is that there is one authority and that is God.

And through him, we are given the authority to share his story.

And so with that, we can do it with boldness.

We can stand in front of opposition and not that we’re trying to be troublemakers, but we’re trying to bring a story of redemption, a story of purpose, something that has happened in our lives, the purpose and power of the Holy Spirit and God’s saving grace on us.

So we as paralyzed sinners get to stand up and go home to heaven to be with Jesus forever.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.