“ Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”
When it was Sabbath Jesus and His newer followers went into a synagogue. Part of a synagogue service at that time consisted of three things: prayer, reading of the scrolls, teaching and sometimes singing. It wasn't just the rabbi or the teacher of the law that spoke. Other men in the congregation were asked to read the Torah and the writings. Sometimes a commentary from one of the noted Jewish scholars was read.
When I went to Russia, it was the custom of the Baptist church to have three preachers in one service. Surprisingly to me the men didn't always know who was going to preach on any given Sunday, even the layperson. The men met for prayer before the service and the pastor would assign someone to the 10-minute sermon, another to preach 20 minutes, and a third to have a 30-minute sermon. As a guest I always knew I was preaching the 30-minute sermon. Services were two hours long.
How would you like to come to church and discover you get 20 minutes to preach on whatever you wanted? That was the type of sermons they heard. Some weren't that good. At least in the synagogues of Jesus’ day they could read the Scriptures and be seated.
Jesus started to explain the Word. At the time there was a lot of quoting the authorities. Jesus taught as the authority Himself. He spoke as one who had authority and not as the teachers of the law. That's a curious phrase. He spoke the Word of the Lord, not what some Jewish scholar said and not what some rabbi or scribe said. He spoke on His own authority. No wonder people were amazed. He showed His authority was greater than the scribes and other teachers.
We do this today. If I were talking to you about the proper way to train your children, I might appeal to a respected expert like Dr. James Dobson or I might refer to a certain study done by a noted writer. The reason I do that is because you may wonder what makes me an authority on this subject and you would be right to question that. But Jesus did not do that. He stood and said, "This is the way it is." It was simply His words alone.
His words rang true to the hearts of the listeners. They knew He was right. He taught with authority. Jesus was authoritative in His teaching because His teaching was from the Father and they learned that He practiced what He taught.
Just as in preaching, a teacher can teach authoritatively, if it is from the Bible. If they share their own ideas, they should say so, so others can question it.
Application: Memorize God’s Word, so that when You need authority in your ministry, you will be ready.
Prayer: Lord, I look to Your Word for my authority. I trust You, I trust the Bible to be Your inerrant Word to man. Thank You for this great mystery.
