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As we said, law-enforcers have authority because that has been given them by a higher power – the elected government. Their words carry the weight of the law because, it is not their words which they speak but the words of the law of the land to which they also are subject. This gives them authority. To step out away from being under that authority, would mean dismissal or legal action or even worse.

This kind of authority was what the many crowds throughout all Israel recognised in Jesus’ teaching. This man was different to all who had come before. Matthew’s text tells us that the crowds were amazed – the original word has the sense of being taken out of themselves, giving us our word ecstatic.

Now, there was this Roman soldier, who saw Jesus’ authority, recognising it because of his own position. As a Roman centurion he was in command of about 100 men who were expected to obey his word without question in a chain of command from foot soldier right up to the highest general and to Caesar. See what Matthew says about this when Jesus offered to come and heal his dangerously ill servant:

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ….. Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. Mat 8:5-13

The Centurion understood authority. He knew Jesus’ word would be all that would be required. Just a word! Unseen. Remote. The soldier shifts his obedience from Caesar to Jesus. Extraordinary for a Roman! He did so because Jesus himself was seen to be under authority – under the authority of his unseen Father.

The various denomination heads were flabbergasted by Jesus’ authority. They kept demanding of him by what authority he taught and acted. This happened when he upset the commercial activities in the temple complex and in many other scenarios. They were provoked by Jesus’ authority. And Pilate, trying to cross examine Jesus at his mock trial must have been shocked to hear this bound, vulnerable prisoner say to him “you have no authority over me unless it is given you by my Father!”

We can do nothing in the Kingdom of God unless we too come under authority – the authority of Jesus. Under his authority we can proclaim the gospel and heal the sick and even raise the dead. Disciples are coming under this authority today all over the world. Amazing things are taking place through Jesus’ followers, following their obedience to his commands. They are experiencing his authority, daily.

This is what it means to be a disciple, to be under that authority.

The other night at our little gathering we had a boisterous time reading Matthew 13, Jesus’ parables of the kingdom. Here’s some things we learned from the Sower.

We saw that only one of the four soil types was described as “good soil”.  A good farmer would surely be aware that the three inferior soils would not produce good crops. But this is not about a farmer. This is about a sower who sows not sparingly but widely and profusely, with joyous abandon.

We could see that the results of sowing seeds of the Kingdom of God vary. But here, the human heart is hidden from the sower’s view. Like Jesus, the sowers –his disciples—must sow generously and not prejudge whether certain ‘soils’ are worthy, even though they are aware that only the good soil will produce a crop.

“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Mat 13:9—17)

We were impressed that Jesus keeps stressing this. So it is a very important phrase, used 5 times in the Gospels, 8 times in Revelation, plus there are similar sayings scattered in the NT. We were deeply challenged to take note!

We noted the obvious: hearing is what ears are for! The Greek akouo (to hear) also means to obey, to heed, to act. The strong implication is that if understanding does not follow then it is critical that the listener finds out, asks. So this is what his disciples do. They ask.

He tells them and us that the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven is given “to you”: “to you who have left everything to follow me”.  These secrets are not even revealed to many prophets e.g., John-Baptist and “righteous” people.

Jesus assures us: There is abundance for those who see it, who hear it, who get it! Those in the Kingdom. To those outside the kingdom everything remains puzzling, parabolic, mysterious. Even what they have will be taken from them.

Of the crowds, Jesus quotes Isa 6:9,10: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

We thought: what a terrible fate, to remain without this precious understanding.

We saw with great sadness, that many of Jesus’ listeners, like those in Isaiah’s day were happy to listen to stories like this but avoided the truth in them in case they understood and were disturbed out of their complacency into action. So today, many are like those in Isaiah’s day and are like the crowds who clamoured for his touch and yet remained without understanding. Complacent. Sterile. Unfruitful. Stagnant. God’s frozen people. Valleys full of dry bones.

We could see that the true people of God are now found outside unbelieving Israel. This is the true flock of God who are identified in Isaiah and the O.T. prophets as the righteous remnant of the chosen people. And the true people of God are now today also found outside the unbelieving churchgoers.

We could see that Jesus’ parables gradually took hold on the disciples. They followed him and understood the radical new way Jesus was starting, especially post-Pentecost.

As we 21^st century disciples, listened to Jesus explaining the various soils, we sensed the dreadful, the tragic, the hopelessness of  merely hearing Jesus’ words but not understanding and those precious words being snatched away (sown on a path). Then, sadly, for the ‘rocky ground’ there was joy for starters, but when trouble came and the word had failed to take root, then the precious spark of life dies. So also among the “thorns” when people inside and without the fellowship of believers, allow the world, or worry, or wealth to choke the treasured word.

Only on the good soil is the word heard and understood and obeyed and a crop produced. This is the meaning of a disciple, to bear much fruit.

This parable is very relevant for us following as it does the previous words and practices of Jesus about the ready harvest and the sending of the disciples on mission.

The metaphors Jesus uses, we saw, are organic! The Kingdom of God is not institutional.  And the gathering (church) of God is never seen as an institution in the Bible! We must stop reading institutionalism (a tradition of men) into the biblical text.

So what have we learnt from this parable?

1. We are sent to sow seeds of the kingdom, spreading seeds abundantly.
2. It’s not up to us to decide the worth of the “soil”, to discriminate
3. Seeds are powerful, they will germinate—the sower expects plants!
4. Everyone has ears, but few have ears that will hear, heed, that is, obey, act, change, turn, fear God.

This hearing is a matter of the heart. Hard, calloused hearts cannot hear. Here is a call for us to examine our hearts –do I have “ears” that can hear and obey the word of God? or a hard, calloused heart, a heart that does not want to hear and so cannot hear?

We ask ourselves, does our soil produce abundantly from the seeds of God’s word? Or, are we stuck in doing things our way, the safe way, the known way, like everyone else, tradition? Am we capable of hearing Jesus’ voice above the noise of tradition, the world and earthly wisdom? Would we love to be producing abundantly?

There is a design from above. We are to listen to Jesus, ask him, study him, let him teach us. We realise we must not just assume that the way our mentors, our teachers, have practised, is Jesus’ way. The road to fruitlessness is paved with assumptions.

Copy Jesus.

Isaiah’s prophecy, made centuries before the vicarious sacrificial atonement of the Servant was spelled out in such remarkable detail, as we have seen. Isaiah now predicts the Servant’s victory:

After he has suffered, he will see the fruit of his suffering and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11)

Jews could not accept that Messiah could die. But death could not hold this Servant of Israel.  And the outcomes were absolutely unexpected. The Lord God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, the God of Moses,  is the God of surprises, time and time again acting in ways never dreamed of by his people but made known to his prophets, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Zechariah ……

The slain Servant will see the results of his suffering –Isaiah wrote in the future tense. To see the results of his suffering means he will come back to life. Yes, he walked out of the grave, he rose from death. YHWH would not allow his holy one to see corruption! (Psalm 16:8-11).

Isaiah foretold the servant’s sacrifice would mean justification for many, and he will bear their iniquities. This is in the Old Testament, not just the New Testament! It is in the Book of the prophet Isaiah! So the Jewish, Messianic believer, Saul of Tarsus (Paul), the former Pharisee, the former persecutor of the disciples of Jesus, writing with eyes wide open, says …

just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

Isaiah continued to prophesy what the results of his suffering would be:

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the numerous. Isaiah 53:12a

Again we read Saul in his Letter to the Phillipian believers:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11. And all this! Why? Because …

because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12b

He said to his disciples just before his suffering:  It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’ and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfilment.” Lu 22:36-37

You will recall he was crucified between two criminals—numbered with the transgressors. Can’t you see how extraordinary this all is?

If you have any ears to hear with, then hear for God’s sake! Do not just sit there and harden your heart.

More!  Matthew (26:28) records the suffering servant before his ordeal saying . … my blood is poured out for many. No doubt this was said at the third cup taken after supper (the cup of redemption) at the Passover feast with his disciples. Of course this Passover meal would coincide with the night of his arrest by the religious leaders and his sacrifice on the tree with the Temple sacrifices of Pesach. What does Pesach stand for?

The sacrificial lamb dies

Those who obey Yahweh are saved

There is protection from judgment

There is deliverance

Finally, to cap everything off, Isaiah has the miraculous prophetic foresight to declare in the Holy Spirit what he would never appreciate until the new world:

For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12c

Note this is in the past tense!  This is all extraordinary, amazing, totally surprising.

Look, reader, you just have to believe in the suffering servant of Israel who the writers of the New Testament had met, touched, heard, learned of him, watched him die and saw him raised from death.

The time you have left is very short. Today if you will hear his voice do not harden your heart.

We are now at the last of these 5 stanzas of this prophetic word of Isaiah, a passage of eternal significance: Isaiah 53:10-12.  I will confine this blog, the first for many weeks from this writer, simply to this verse 10 and follow up with the remainder soon.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though you [the LORD] make his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Isa 53:10

It was the LORD’S  will to crush him, this precious human being, this Son of God! What a mystery, far, far beyond our understanding, to cause his life to suffer as an offering for sin.  This is God acting in human history. This is God doing what he had always planned. This is how much he loves us and how grave is our sin.

You got a better rescue plan?

Do you not see it? God, the Father this wonderful person values you so much, loves us so dearly that he has done even this in sending us His Christ, the Jewish Messiah, to rescue us and set us free from fear, domination of the evil powers and an eternal death.

Or are you smarter than God? Do you have a better solution? No. This ‘foolishness’ of God is much wiser than your ideas, your private little philosophy, your miserably-weak world view, your bankrupt and beggarly religion, your vain self-righteous insurance you think will get you over the line.

This remarkable word speaks unmistakably of a ransom, a vicarious death, the lamb slain. Done.

Yes. Yes. This is a death of the innocent instead of the offenders, the many. Us. All of us. Jews and Gentiles.  Religious and irreligious. Wealthy and poor. Young and old. We have all broken fellowship with God, acted as offenders, sinned, gone our own ways. We have turned our backs on the Lover who having provided us life upon this awesome planet, now does the ultimate to win us back to His bosom.

The story teller in Matthew 20:28 quotes Jesus’ emphatic word about himself: the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. There it is – the suffering servant of Isaiah, predicted 6 centuries before and fulfilled in unmistakable detail in the death of the historical Jesus, an act that is emphasised over and over by all the writers of the New Testament.

He suffered and he died. But as Isaiah saw long ago, he will see his offspring, innumerable people from every race, generation, nationality, status and culture. He will see the fruit of his labours, the results of his offering. The suffering servant will survive and will see the abundant life flowing from his offering. And that’s not all. God’s design, his will, will is being restored and seen under his leadership.

His leadership, his movement: It began with an outpouring of power and authority upon his offspring, his followers who against all odds in an aggressive Roman rule and pervasive Greek  ideas and culture, turned that world around. Today the results of his death, abound in China, in Africa in the Middle East and in South East Asia – things that are not widely known in the media dominated West.

He sees the results of that dreadful travail of his human soul. He lives. He lives! Victorious.