All Authority Is in the Living Word; Go and Teach Him

(Matthew 28:18-19 MKJV) And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. (19) Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

If we condense this verse a little, we see Jesus’s meaning: “All authority is given to me (the Living Anointed Word of God) … therefore go and teach …” Jesus is the living word; he has all the authority that exists. He is far above presidents, demons, physical laws, and all opposition. No weapon formed against him shall prosper. No wonder Jesus tells us to go and teach the word; his word comes to life on earth when we teach and preach what he quickens to our spirits. When the word is alive, that’s where the authority is.

Different translations use the phrase, “make disciples,” where this one has the word “teach.” The Greek word behind this means: to disciple, that is, enroll as a scholar.

To help us in the process of bringing the whole of created being back under God’s kingdom, Jesus first told us of his achievement in getting “all authority” into the hands of the living Word. Then he said to go and preach it (Mark 16:15) so that those who hear, receive, and believe the gospel can receive the authority to become God’s children:

(John 1:12 APE) But those that received him, to them he gave authority to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name.

Peter confirms that it is the authority of the living Word that produces the new birth:

(1 Peter 1:23 NKJV) Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.

Next, Jesus wants us to “enrol” God’s newly born children as scholars. In other words, he wants us to recruit them into a discipleship program like the one into which he enlisted his original twelve followers. Jesus likens this discipleship/learning process to the way farm animals learn; an experienced one and a new one were “yoked” together in a very close pairing or relationship:

(Matthew 11:29-30 DKJV) “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. (30) For my yoke is good, useful and kind, and my burden is light [and easy to carry].”

Jesus wants us to focus this discipleship on learning about him, the living Word of God: learning in the classroom and on-the-job; learning to be like Jesus; learning to minister like him; and learning to walk in the Spirit—obeying his illogical instructions. The apostle Paul understood this:

(1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV) Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

We sometimes feel that Jesus delegated his “all authority” to us when he said, “Go therefore and teach.” But when we look at the rest of our new covenant, we realize that this cannot be exactly what he meant. For example, through the apostle Paul the Holy Spirit said:

(Colossians 3:3 WEB) “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.?

The emphasis of the New Testament is that we died with Jesus, and a new creation came into being with him at his resurrection. By faith, we receive and appropriate that new creation when we receive the new birth. However, when we surrender completely to the lordship of Jesus and the leading of the Holy Spirit, it renders our own life “hidden”; our new life is completely lost in him. Paul explains it best:

(Galatians 2:20 NLT) “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me …”

What Jesus did delegate to us—and this is what makes the “blessing” so powerful—is the right to access the revelation of his word and to speak it. Jesus’s death and resurrection opened the way for those of us who are dead to the old self and alive in him, to access God’s throne. Here, we receive fresh revelation or illumination of the written word. Again, through Paul the Holy Spirit explains this so well:

(1 Corinthians 2:9-10 NKJV) But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (10) But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

Through the new birth, and because we love God wholeheartedly; and because we are his true worshippers in spirit and in truth; he reveals things to us through his Spirit. This fresh revelation is when the word lives. We do not have “all authority” delegated to us personally, but we do have the awesome privilege of receiving and speaking the one who does have all authority—the living anointed Word of God. Again, this is why Jesus—after declaring that “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth”—sent us to teach. The authority to change lives and to subdue the whole universe is in the living words that we teach, preach, sing, pray, prophesy, confess, believe, and with which we renew our minds.

Today, I encourage you to make the word the highest priority of your life. The living word has authority higher than any circumstance, demon, person, or power that you could ever encounter. If you receive the revelation from the Holy Spirit by meditating in the word at God’s throne, etc., you can then articulate the quickened word on earth and see the authority of the Lion roar. Every knee will bow … eventually. He will bring your provision, save your family, heal your body; he alone can drive away all opposition and set the captives free.

The resurrected, anointed, living Word of the living God has all authority; he can do any and everything. He, after all, is the one we witness operating in and through Jesus in the gospels. Jesus just needs us to receive and believe the quickened word. Praise the Lord that the living Word brings his own faith—when we hear him (Rom. 10:17). No wonder Jesus said:

(Mark 9:23 NKJV) “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”