2014 Shepherds Conference: Preaching with Authority (Titus 2:15) | John MacArthur

It's always a challenge for me to uh kind of come up with a message at the end of the week. I I can't really do that until close to the end because I I have to listen to everything that's been said and kind of find something that maybe I can uh I can fill in a little bit.

So much has been said by our wonderful speakers and so much has been said in the seminars and we've covered an awful lot of ground. But I'm fully aware too that there's something very foundational that I want to press home. Uh and it's what you would expect me to say.

I want to talk about the preachers's authority. I I want to talk about the issue of expository preaching and the preachers's authority. And uh I I really don't know that you could classify this as a sermon. It maybe is more um talking to you from my heart, but through the scripture about the urgency and importance of having authority in our preaching, real authority.

And I I just want to start with one verse of scripture that I've gone back to many times through the years. It's uh Titus chapter 2 and verse 15. Titus chapter 2 and verse 15. And I'm not even going to rehearse all of the dynamics of context that are going on with Titus and his relationship to Paul and the issues at Cree and all of that.

I I just want to capture this verse and see if I can't embed it in its urgency in your own mind. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. I had a phone conversation the other day with a very well-known, very able, very faithful, very blessed preacher, and he said, "I I work with university students some, and I'm uh I'm interested to find out that they listen to you."

And when I sought out why, what came up was they said, "He speaks with authority." That's interesting. The word authority seems rather overbearing to most preachers today, I would think. But the word strikes me like a lightning bolt. Preachers not telling stories. theologizing, rehearsing his experiences, sharing insights, offering counseling opinions.

Really, the word authority is is the word epitag. In every other New Testament use, it's translated, are you ready for this? Commandment. Commandment. who in the pulpit suggests that he is there to command people. It is to speak as one who commands. We have a model for that.

The ultimate model, the Lord Jesus Christ. when he completed the sermon on the mount in Matthew 7:29, the response was, "He's not like the rabbis. He speaks as one having authority. He speaks commandingly." In Mark's gospel chapter 1 22 says in Capernium they were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority as one commanding and not as the scribes.

And just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying what business do we have with each other Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet.

Come out of him." Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

His teaching was commanding. And the way he dealt with that unclean spirit was also commanding. He exercised command over that demon. And he exercised command over his teaching. He commands. In Luke 4:36 they said what is this message for with authority and power he commands. He commands. Yeah.

He commanded the dise the the demons. He commanded disease to flee. And he had the same commanding tone in his teaching. Now this raised some questions obviously because there were people in the culture namely the religious leaders of Judaism who felt they were the resident and sole authorities and Jesus came along with an authority that was beyond theirs that they eventually come to him as Mark 11:28 says and they say to him by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority.

He hadn't gone to any of the rabbitical institutions. He wasn't a part of the religious religious structure or system. What was his authority? Their authority came from 2,000 years of Jewish tradition. Their authority came because they were articulating the accepted reigning theology of the hour. Their authority came from an office and a title, from training.

But where did he get his authority? And how could he possibly without quoting rabbis and without deferring to tradition command people? Well, you know the answer to that. But let's look at it just to refresh. John chapter 7 and verse 14 when it was now the midst of the feast.

This is the feast of booths or the feast of tabernacles around fall October or so 6 months or so from Passover. Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, never having been educated?" So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. But he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him. He is true and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Here's the key to his authority. His teaching is not his. It is the teaching of the one who sent him. They knew who he claimed sent him. He kept saying back in chapter 6, "I am the bread that comes down from heaven. I am the bread that comes down from heaven."

And we heard him in chapter 5 make claims to be God himself. His message came from God and that's where his authority originated. In chapter 8 verse 28 Jesus said when you lift up the son of man then you will know that I am he and I do nothing on my own initiative but I speak these things as the father taught me.

Verse 38, I speak the things which I have seen with my father. Verse 40, but as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. You're familiar with these claims. Chapter 12 49. I do not speak on my own initiative, but the father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the father has told me. Why did Jesus speak with authority? Why did he command? Because the father had commanded him. He's passing on divine commands. He spoke the word of God and only the word of God.

The preacher's authority comes only when he speaks the word of God. And to speak the word of God is to command. Even the gospel is a command. Repent. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are commands. Those are not suggestions. Those are commands. And back to our text in Titus, what the Apostle Paul tells Titus to do essentially is command people.

Command them unequivocally. Demand that if they are to do what is right and what is required, they are to do what God has declared and what God demands. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Not just authority, all authority. That is to say, authority that is comprehensive, authority that is unassalable.

What about authoritative preaching? Do we even think about authoritative preaching? Are we fearful of authoritative preaching? Does that sound like hard preaching? It is. I was saying to some of the students earlier, hard preaching makes soft people, soft preaching makes hard people. We don't really have a an option.

There are some elements in this verse that I would have you look at. What is it that we preach? Well, the verse begins, these things. These things. Now, what things would that be? Back to chapter 2, verse one. Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. These are the things to speak.

Go back to chapter 1 verse 7. The overseer, elder, pastor must be above reproach in as God's steward as we heard from Tom this morning. Not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sort of gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine, and to refute those who contradict.

For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sorted gain. There is a tone in this responsibility of being an elder that calls you to a place where you're commanding people to obey.

And if they refuse to obey and they fall into the category of rebellious people and empty talkers, you must command them to be silent. The content then again is indicated to be the faithful word in verse nine. The faithful word. Faithful word is all scripture given by inspiration of God. profitable as we know from 2 Timothy 3.

It's interesting how frequently the Apostle Paul in his u first letter to Timothy talks about these things. I just found it a kind of interesting in chapter 4 verse 6 he says in pointing out these things there's that same phrase that begins Titus 2:15 in pointing out these things to the brethren you'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus in verse 11 command and teach these things that's that is the verb command command and teach these things in verse 15.

Take pains with these things, be absorbed in them. Chapter 5, I think it's u verse 7. Again, it's command these things. And again verse 21, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels to maintain these things without bias. Chapter 6 verse two.

Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them in all the more because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. teach and practice these things. And what does he mean by these things? Titus 2:1, things fitting for sound doctrine.

That's why in 2 Timothy 4, we're told, "Preach the word. Preach the word. Preach the word." In season, out of season. That means all the time because we're either in season or out of season. This brief passage then confines the ministry to a very narrow perspective. I understand it leads to difficulty.

I understand it leads possibly to suffering. Could even lead to persecution. Could even lead to martyrdom. But commanding, demanding, authoritative preaching is certainly not the trend in contemporary church circles. The trend, of course, as you know, is give them what they want. Commanding people is a very, very challenging thing to do.

Well, we don't live in a culture that does really well with being commanded. You probably noticed that. There are there are several things that sort of produce that. Um, let me let me make a few suggestions. For a for a while now, people have gone to church expecting to be entertained or interested or um encouraged, but never commanded.

And and so poor preaching contributes to a resistance to commanding or non preaching, you might want to call it. Many have never heard the real thing. They've never had their preacher command them. They've never had their conscience assaulted with blows of biblical authority. It sounds strange. It sounds overpowering.

It sounds wrong, politically cor incorrect. And then not only have churches created an expectation for poor inoffensive preaching, but churches have created an an expectation of u brief psychologically oriented uh sort of booster shots, non-judgmental and sensitive. They've even um they've even learned to expect spontaneity. People just saying whatever comes into their head.

Consequently, they have absolutely no appetite for well-prepared, profound, challenging, rich, insightful, provocative, deep, theological, convicting, demanding preaching. People go to church, some churches, and they're into liturgy, and the spirit of the age hates any authority. They hate any absolutes. They hate the idea that there's actually propositional truth.

You are really out of touch. The nature of sin, as we heard from Al last night, makes men natural rebels who suppress the truth. The utter absence of moral absolutes makes it impossible for them to accept any authority, especially an authority that is telling them, "Do this or go to hell forever.

Psychologists and psychiatrists and the self-esteem culture has softened up everybody. Made everybody feel good about himself or herself. Failure of parents to discipline their children. The breakdown of the home. The ubiquitous sexual immorality. Divorce. Children are growing up without a real objective firm father who's in authority in their lives.

And the media, I mean, their stock and trade is to destroy anyone who is in authority. Anyone. And then the failure of people who are in authority and have some kind of moral explosion. And then there's of course incipient humanism and the overestimation of personal rights. All that stuff floating around all the time makes you as a man who has been called to speak with authority a real a real dodo bird.

You are out of sync with reality. You are an extinct being. Paul, however, has given us a mandate that cannot be avoided. He demands that we command and that the content of our commanding is these things which fit sound doctrine. I'm afraid that there are many preachers who are cowards, real cowards.

They're afraid to command. They're afraid to say to someone, "You must or else." You must or else. You must do this or God will do this. So the content of our authoritative preaching are the things that are sound in doctrine drawn from the same source from which our Lord drew all the truth that he spoke with authority and that is the word of God.

The method pretty simple. Look at verse 15 again. Speak, exhort, reprove. Speak. so they can hear and understand. Exhort so that they can believe and appropriate. Reprove so that they can obey and submit or face the consequences. We speak for the purpose of understanding. We exhort to bring upon them the full weight of the implications of what they now hear and understand. and we reprove to convict them of the consequences of failing to obey.

This is what we do. This is what preaching is. Now, I want to quickly add, we speak the truth in what? >> In love. >> But we speak the truth. >> Amen. And the force, the the content, these things, the method, speak, exhort, reprove, the force. Let no one disregard you.

Here's something you've never heard. You are an enforcer. You enforce the law of God on the souls of hearers so that they flee to his grace. You enforce the third usage of the law on believers so that they flee his discipline. >> Let no one disregard you. That's that familiar Greek verb per frento. for oh mine parry around.

Don't let anybody evade you mentally. Don't don't any Don't let anybody get off the hook. Don't let anybody loose. Don't let anybody try to justify themselves. Don't let anybody rationalize this as if it were irrelevant or didn't apply to them. Hold them to the truth. This is nothing um new.

Listen to 2 Chronicles 36. The Lord verse 15. The God of our of their fathers sent word to them again and again by his messengers because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people until there was no remedy.

What is the role of the messengers? The truth, the truth, and the warning behind the truth. Make sure no one tries to get around the scripture. And men, this is the only authority we have. >> I don't I don't have any authority because I'm the pastor of Grace Church.

I don't have any authority because of this position. I don't have any authority in this church. I don't have any authority to say, "Paint the building green." I'm telling you that's what I want. I don't have any authority to rule. I don't have any personal authority. I don't I don't have any authority anywhere really.

I don't have authority over disease. I don't have authority over demons. I don't have any authority to uh forgive sin. I'm not a charismatic and I'm not a Catholic priest and I'm not under any illusion that I have those authorities. I don't have any authority personally. I don't have any authority until I speak the word of God. then I have all authority and I'm not going to let you get around it because your soul is too important.

Your salvation is too important and your sanctification is too important. I'm not going to let you justify your sin. I'm not going to let you evade. In fact, I'm going to be an enforcer. And if you try to evade, I'm going to teach this congregation that if they know you're in sin to go to you and to speak to you and to bring you back and bring you to repentance.

And if you don't respond, then I'm going to teach this congregation to take somebody else and go two or three and call you back. And if you don't respond, I'm going to stand up here on a Sunday at a communion service and mention your name and tell the whole church. everybody that knows you and that you're not penitent and you are dishonoring the Lord and bring your reproach upon the church to go and bring you back.

That's authority to enforce the word now. Look, you know, I know some of you are getting scared here. You you're saying, "I'm going to go back and try that next Sunday. I'll be out here looking for a job. The only authority I have is in the word. I don't have any authority by my education.

I went to school. A lot of people went to school. I don't have any authority because I'm educated. I don't have any authority because I have a degree. I don't I don't have any any particular mental authority. I don't have any rational authority. It's not who the smartest guy gets the authority.

Not in the church. Might be true in secular world. I don't have any authority. I I don't have any authority by virtue of my leadership abilities. I don't have any authority by virtue of my human wisdom. I don't have any authority based on my experience. None. But haven't you had spiritual experiences?

Yeah, a lot of them. I've been around a long time, but I haven't been caught up to the third heaven yet. And the only person that I know of who was came back and said, "It's not profitable to talk about it." Why? Because his experience, as valid and true as it was, could not be verified or repeated.

I don't have any authority until I speak the word of God. Then I have all authority. And then I'm going to do my best to make sure you don't escape the implications. >> I believe in not so much application as implication. I can't come up with every possible application of a spiritual truth, but I can make you feel the weight of the implication of that truth.

That's all authority I have. I think I think you see that. I see that in the Apostle Paul. I see that in him. His authority was all based on the revelation that he had received from God. I I don't want to keep you long tonight, but I do want to give you an illustration that maybe will be a little bit of an encouragement to you.

Skip a few things because want you to have some fellowship after. But there's an illustration of this that captures my thinking. When you look at the apostles, uh, I mean, the gospels, you wouldn't necessarily predict a great amount of success, right? First of all, there are 12 names.

You you know something about four or five of them and virtually nothing about the rest of them. You don't even know what their skills and gifts were. They don't talk. They don't have any record of them saying anything. All we have a record of is them being represented by Peter asking stupid questions and making ridiculous comments.

So if you were look at at you know basically as many as seven of them might have been fishermen and they're commoners and you know you've you've got one non-Galilean Judas and he's a disaster the ultimate of all disasters. Uh you got a converted tax collector and you got a converted zealot.

Maybe he belonged to the Sakari. You know the the Jewish terrorists who went around the back alley stabbing Romans. Then this is a hoy paloy. This is a this is a ragtag bunch. Not one of them was a rabbi. Not one of them was a Pharisee, a Sadducee.

Not one of them was a scribe. Not one of them was a ruler of a synagogue or a religious leader of any kind. They weren't even a part of the religious establishment other than like other people going to the synagogue. And they um they seem to be most of the time bewildered.

Uh they seem fearful, confused, reluctant, um uh hiding, fleeing. And yet we all know that the Lord is preparing preachers and they're going to end up with 11 and the addition of Matias and they're going to be 12 of them with the responsibility of uh beginning to reach the entire world.

When you look at them for example, just take Luke's history, his long history, two volumes. When you look at him in in the book of Luke, sometimes it's it's just hopeless. The oe of little faith society. And then when you get to the book of Acts, something changes.

And the change is dramatic. All of a sudden, they're bold. They're confident. particularly Peter who almost every time he spoke with a few exceptions when he said you're the Christ the son of the living God and to whom shall we go you and you alone have the words of eternal life and we know you're the holy one of God apart from that most of the things he said were missing the point trying to redirect the Lord and away from the purposes of his father but now when you see him in the book of acts the first half of the book of acts or first large section of the book of Acts.

He's this confident, bold, powerful, sacrificial, relentless preacher along with the rest of the apostles. And they're so powerful and so faithful that they turned the world upside down. I was thinking about that last night, Al, when you were preaching, they that that they literally did an exchange. They they flipped the world under their the power of their preaching.

Now, now I know what you're thinking. You're saying, "Yeah, yeah, of course." the the Holy Spirit came. Sure he did. That made a difference. But the Holy Spirit had been with them. You say, "But the resurrection, the res," you're absolutely right. The resurrection made a huge difference and the coming of the Holy Spirit made a huge difference.

There is no question about that. When the Gospels end, we're left wondering whether there's any future for Christianity. Matthew leaves them somewhat doubtful. Mark just stops writing. John ends with their leader, their leader being completely disobedient and out of line and having gone back to his own boat in his own fishing career.

And he has to be grabbed and confronted about his lack of love and then told he's going to wind up as a martyr. I mean, it really isn't very hopeful. Well, I'm glad for the book of Luke. But when you come to the book of Acts, you maybe would expect some cowards, but you get heroes.

Courageous, fearless, relentless, arrested, imprisoned, killed. What happened? What happened to the cowards hiding in fear now preaching Christ Jesus in Jerusalem, in the temple, in the streets, in the domain of the leaders who killed their Lord. They preached, they indicted the leaders. They held them responsible for the murder of their Messiah.

What is the answer? What is the answer? Here's what I believe changed everything. everything. For the first time ever, they understood their Bibles. What was their Bible? What was it? >> Old Testament. For the first time, they understood their Bible. That changed everything. Let's go back to Luke for a minute and I'll show you this unfolding.

In Luke nine, we sort of pick up a bit of an insight into their understanding. Verse 43, middle of the verse. While everyone was marveling at all he was doing, he said to his disciples, "Let these words sink into your ears. Let these words sink into your ears.

For the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." They didn't understand this statement and it was con concealed from them. So they wouldn't perceive it and they were afraid to ask him about this statement. There was really no way to access that information.

What? You're going to be delivered, arrested by men? They couldn't process that. This continued to be standard operating procedure. You come over to chapter 18 and verse 31. Then he took the 12 aside and said to them, "Behold, we're going to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.

He will be handed over to the Gentiles, be mocked, mistreated, spit on, scourged, killed, third day rise again." Verse 34. The disciples understood what? None of it. none of it. They didn't understand anything. And the meaning of this statement was hidden from them. And they couldn't comprehend the things that were said.

They had no possible way to grasp an arrested Messiah beaten, spit on, crucified, dead, risen. What does that tell you? They didn't know what? They didn't know their own Bible. Didn't know their Bibles. didn't understand the suffering of Messiah. They couldn't connect it with their truncated view of the Old Testament filtered by their traditional apostate Judaism.

Then there was a momentous event. Go to the end of the book of Luke. A really a momentous event and you're familiar with it. Verse 13. They were going, two of them, two of the followers of Jesus, don't know who they are, to a village named Emmas near Jerusalem, seven miles, and they were talking with each other about all the things that had been taking place.

And they were talking and discussing. And Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them, you remember? And he didn't disclose himself to them. One of them, um, Cleopus, when I say we don't know them, I mean we don't know anything about them, answered and said to him,"Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things that have happened here in these days?"

And he said, "What things?" They said, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him." And we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.

And now already it's the third day since these things happened. They go on to talk about word about the resurrection and then these familiar wonderful verses. Verse 25, he said to them, "Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter in his glory?"

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Remember that for the first time, for the first time, they understood the Old Testament and what it said about the coming Messiah. That was early in the day of the resurrection. at night.

Verse 44, when he gathered with the disciples in the city of Jerusalem, he said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.

I've been telling you that and telling you that." And remember, they couldn't understand. They couldn't understand. They couldn't understand. All of a sudden, he opened their minds to understand the scripture and he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ or the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem so forth."

Now, I know you're familiar with this, but I just want to show you how this works out. All of a sudden, for the first time, they understand the Old Testament. They understand the Old Testament. They understand how it points to Messiah. They understand it in specifics. Go to Acts chapter 1.

In the beginning was the word. That's John. Let me go to Acts. Where do I get there? The first account I composed Theophilles. The first account I composed Theophilles about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up to heaven after he listen after he had by the Holy Spirit commanded the apostles whom he had chosen.

To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs appearing to them over 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. You know what he did first? He taught them on the road to Emmas and in the upper room on resurrection day how the Messiah was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies.

And then he expanded and gave them the whole redemptive plan and the advancing realities concerning the kingdom over a period of 40 days. This is new. Watch what happens. You open the book of Acts, you meet them in the upper room. They're all gathered waiting for the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit hasn't come. They say, you know, um, we need to replace Judas. Peter says to the gathering of folks, verse 16, brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

He now understands an Old Testament prophecy about Judas. Keep reading. He was counted among us and received his share in this ministry. This man acquired a field. He goes on down to verse 19. He talks about the field field called hal hakalma field of blood verse 20 for it is written in the book of psalms.

He quotes Psalm 69 Psalm 109. This is amazing. Those are isolated verses. But all of a sudden Peter knows they relate to Judas. You never hear them quoting the Old Testament in the Gospels. You never hear them connecting Old Testament passages to events. Therefore, it is necessary to do what we need to do.

It's in the plan. Judas is in the plan. Then on Pentecost, by the way, that was before the Holy Spirit came. Before the Holy Spirit came, they already demonstrated an understanding of the Old Testament. Specific isolated passages of the Old Testament that related to the very issues they were experiencing.

Then you come to the day of Pentecost, chapter 2. Peter, verse 14, stands up. Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. These men are not drunk as you suppose. It's not. It's only the third hour of the day.

This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. Now, all of a sudden, Peter's a Old Testament prophecy expert. Wow. What is going on here? And he just rolls through Joel 2:28-32. Just fires it off. And it was almost like it was always in the mind. He always knew the passage.

He just didn't understand the significance of the passage. And then down in uh a little further in verse 22, men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God miracles and wonders and signs and God performed those through him in your midst as you know and so forth.

God verse 24 raised him up for David says of him and he just fires off Psalm 16. What's going on here? What's happening? Verse 30 to 29. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and this tomb is with us to this day.

His tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Now he's rattling off Psalm 132, Psalm 89, and 2 Samuel 7. It's just it's an explosion of Old Testament understanding.

Down in verse 34, he says in 33, God raised up Jesus and exalted him to the right hand. And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he's poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven.

But he himself says, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foottool for your feet." This is just absolutely amazing. Psalm 110. Do you understand what's going on here? Can you understand the euphoria? Do you do you understand now why their hearts burned within them when for the first time they understood the scripture?

They understood the scripture. They understood their Bibles. They saw the big picture. They saw the flow. They saw God's redemptive purpose, God's redemptive revelation, God's redemptive plan. And the very words of scripture all of a sudden made sense. And they were the first wave of expositional preachers. Chapter 3 11.

The man who was healed is clinging to Peter and John. All the people ran together at the so-called portico of Solomon full of amazement. When Peter saw this, he replied to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we made him walk?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. He's reaching back and finding everything he can out of the Old Testament. A little later, he quotes Moses. Verse 22, Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me. from your brethren to him you shall give heed to everything he says to you. verse 25 he he reaches back that that in verse 22 um of course comes from Genesis 22 but down in verse 25 it comes from Genesis no that's Genesis 22:2 where he refers to Abraham and the covenant and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed he understands the Abrahamic promise the Abrahamic covenant he it's all beginning to make sense that earlier passage was from Deuteronomy chapter 18 the whole of scripture comes alive the next thing You know, you're into chapter 4 and it's exactly the same experience.

You come to verse 23. They've been released. They go out. Verse 24. Oh Lord, it is you who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. This this is very familiar to us. David your servant said, "Why do the nations rage and the people devise feudal things, the kings of the earth?"

And he's quoting Psalm two. Amazing. I mean, this gives me a little hint into the the Old Testament knowledge these men had that they just couldn't use because he didn't know what it meant. And then you come to chapter 7 and what's Stephen do? He gives an incredible incredible history of of redemption.

That's just one Old Testament reference or quote after another. You come to chapter 13 and it's it's the same thing. And this keeps going on and on and on and on. You come to the end of the book of Acts just to get to the end so we don't keep doing this.

And now we're at Paul chapter 28 verse 25. I'll pick it up. And when they didn't agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word. The the Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers. Verse 25, Isaiah the prophet spoke to your fathers.

Starting in verse 26, he starts quoting Isaiah 6. Quotes it in detail. From the beginning of the book of Acts to the end of the book of Acts, you were meeting the first generation of expository preachers. And I'll tell you, they spoke with authority, didn't they? Power and authority. power and authority.

That's a model. That's a model. Jesus first, who spoke commandingly, the apostles, go back, read Peter's sermons, read Paul's sermons. They command. And that's what we're called to do, to command. I understand that's not what people want to hear. But that's what we're called to do. That's the only place we can command.

Did you get that? That's the only place. We can make good suggestions. We can offer our wisdom. We can give our counsel. We can share our opinion. But when we pick up this book and do what we've been called to do, we command. Amen. >> The father commanded, the son commanded, and we command.

This is serious business, isn't it?