Jesus' Authority (Mark 11:1-26)

In keeping with the idea that Jesus’ authority is the theme of Mark 11:1-26, the theological implications of these scriptures for everyone, believer and non-believer, are much the same. First of all, Jesus is Lord. He does possess authority--authority to speak a curse to a fig tree and the fig tree wither; authority to enter into the temple of the Lord, a sacred place, and clear the moneychangers out; authority to tell his disciples to enter a village and take someone’s colt, explaining simply that the Lord is in need of it; authority to be worshipped and granted a triumphant entry into the holy city of Jerusalem; and authority to promise his disciples that they can pray for anything and they will have it.

To the non-believer, the implications are fairly simple. To know Christ is to know not just a man, but a man who holds total and complete authority. The Jesus that they are told about is more than a man: he possesses the authority of God, thus leading them into the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ--he is God.

To we who are already in the faith, acknowledging that Jesus is Lord and making him Lord of our lives, these scriptures remind us of who Jesus is. It reminds us of one of many important parts of Jesus’ complex nature. When we read about Jesus in the gospels, we envision in our mind a man-walking, talking, teaching, breathing. When we study this section of the gospel, we see more clearly the authority of that man--a glimpse of the position and power from which he descended to earth. If we apply this realization of the authority that Jesus has to our lives, starting with our hearts, it becomes obvious to us how worthy he is of a triumphant entry into our hearts, how we must make our bodies which he has called his temple a place of prayer, how the authority of his Word holds power great enough to change our hearts and lives.

Essentially, in realizing Jesus’ authority, we may put him in his proper position of honor and glory.

Made for the Glory of God

So, it’s not a whole lot that I wanted to share, but as I was going through my Bible study it just jumped out at me (it’s pretty cool how God does that sometimes, isn’t it?)

So okay, the Nooma guy’s basic point was that we are the reference point for the lost and dying world around us to see God, right? So get this. Isaiah 43:7 says, “All who claim me as their God will come, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.” The Bible study I am doing is by Beth Moore, and she brings up this great question—what does that mean? Define glory, God’s glory. And I start going through these Bible verses that she gives about His glory and you discover that in some ways, it’s really undefinable.

Isaiah 6:3/Numbers 20:6/2 Chronicles 5:13-14/Psalm 19:1/Psalm 29:9/Isaiah 42:8
John 1:14/John 2:11/Hebrews 1:3/2 Peter 1:3

And after reading all of these and writing out how it seems to me that glory can be defined according to each verse, it seems that God’s glory is, as simply put as possible, His representation of himself. As Beth Moore puts it, “God’s glory is the way He makes Himself recognizable.”

Then we put two and two together and come up with this wonderful concept—that if God’s glory is the way He shows himself, the means by which He makes himself recognizable, and we are created FOR HIS GLORY, then that means that, essentially, He made us in order to show Himself IN us and THROUGH us.

Which basically is the same thing that the video was talking about.
And pretty darn cool if you ask me. Psalm 19:11 says that the Heavens display the glory of God, and Isaiah 6:3 says that the whole earth is filled with His glory, and I guess it just makes you feel pretty good that He made us for glory, too.