Matthew 7:28 Commentary and Bible Study

They were astonished at his doctrine. By comparison the scribes were dry and dismal. The scribes spoke often to the people and the people were familiar with their teaching. It is not possible to fake the sort of authority that the crowd correctly detected in the teaching of the Lord and the scribes were not able to fabricate it. They could not speak with authority because they lacked all personal experience. As Christ said to Nicodemus, ‘We speak what We know and testify what We have seen’ (John 3:11), and a little later to the Jews, ‘I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him’ (John 8:26). Christ not only had personal experience, but he had experience such as no other preacher who spoke on earth ever had. He spoke as one who had seen the Father with his own eyes and reported the things that he had seen. The scribes had seen nothing and so had to make up all that they taught and conjure up an authority from nowhere. Christ spoke with authority because he had been sent into this world by the Father. He carried out his mission and sought the honour of the one who had sent him. But the scribes were not sent from nothing but their own human institutions and their own imaginations. They claimed to come with a divine message, but God had not sent them. Christ also spoke with his own authority, because, as the Son of God, he knew that he spoke the truth and he spoke out of his infinite knowledge of all things. One who speaks the truth expects his hearers to receive his word as truth, because the truth carries an authority of its own. Christ spoke as the Lord of all men; he spoke as Judge over all, who knows the details of every man’s conduct, and innermost motive. Although a man may be placed in a position of authority over others simply because he occupies an office of learning, students want authority to be earned and they look for something which merits it. But a teacher of divine truth must speak with the authority of God. Without it he is exposed as a fraud, a pretender. What aspects of Christ’s teaching made the people recognise his authority? A man cannot speak with authority without conviction that what he says is true, and this expresses itself in his whole bearing. He does not need to force his message onto other people as if to make up for some deficiency in it, because it carries within it a power to convince. He will be fully aligned with his message and the tone of his delivery will accord with his message. This will come across in a complete naturalness of delivery which is full of earnestness and concern to convey the importance of what is being said. This still leaves room for individual expression for each one has their own unique way of expressing themselves sincerely. But when truth comes from the heart, it has a wonderful capacity to energise the entire body and transforms the person into a vehicle of communication. If we are worthy listeners, the truth will awaken in our hearts a great stirring, but this requires that we thoroughly grasp what is being said, therefore the messenger must bend all his powers to communicate his message. When Christ spoke to the people, they heard the profound subject matter that he brought to them. He spoke of heaven and hell and eternity to come, and he spoke of his hearers eternal future. What weightier subject could there be? At the same time he spoke as one who was certain of what he said and who expected to be believed. He did not qualify his speech or hedge his words about with uncertainty – ‘I think … I believe …’, but spoke with the conviction that there was no difference between his word and the everlasting truth. But Christ’s authority went even further. He did not speak as one who was delivering someone else’s message; he gave them his own message. There was an immediacy about what he said because was an eye witness. He spoke of living realities, of matters of life and death. He told the people that their acceptance of his word would determine their eternal future. No scribe ever spoke in this way, or dared to invest so much personal authority in what they said, lest they expose themselves to ridicule. He also spoke of secret things which none could know unless they had access to heaven with their own eyes. Christ gave insights to his prophets, but he reserved for himself the greatest insights so that his words would be elevated even above these lesser stars. His words also had authority because it was evident that he spoke so as to be understood, and not in a complex way designed to impress his hearers with his eloquence. Though he was the Son of God he spoke simply, for his aim was to be faithful to God, not to impress men. Although he knew that only his sheep would hear his voice, there was nothing in his sermon which obscured the message for those who had eyes to see. None ever spoke so simply and yet so profoundly, touching on eternal truths and expressing them minimally and meekly. No other speaker had such an infinite treasure hidden in such modest forms. None ever so implicitly trusted the Spirit to take the small seed that was sown and cause it to grow up into such a great tree in the hearts of those who received it. None so identified themselves with their message that they became the message itself.That authority told them that they must take the utmost care about what they did with his words. We can afford to ignore words of little significance, for no consequence will follow from doing so, but words brought to us from a great authority cannot be ignored. A great authority has great power to enforce its words. Christ showed his authority in rebuking and correcting all other authorities. The scribes and Pharisees were the leaders of the people and all things religious were under them. But Christ had exposed their hypocrisy; he had examined in detail several instances of their interpretation of the law showed its deficiency, but he showed that none of his teaching was inconsistent with God’s word. He always spoke with a gravity and seriousness that did not jar with the solemn words that he was uttering. He was full of earnest concern for his hearers and their eternal well-being. He did not hesitate to say hard things to them, but he said these things out of the deepest sympathy. He was so obviously master of all that he said. His use of illustrations was so apt and these illustrations shed brilliant light on all that he taught. His sermon had authority because it was so original. He did not borrow his material from others or rest his authority on the sayings of mere men, retailing what others had said, and bring only the fallible ideas. Instead he bypassed all human thinking and brought the thoughts of God to the people which owe nothing to any man. Despite all this, many of them were not saved and did profit from his words. They heard these great warnings and went ahead and called him ‘Lord, Lord’, without doing the things he said. They went ahead and built their house on the sand and saw its collapse when the storm came. Their righteousness did not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees who limited their obedience to an outward conformity to the law. But other heard these words and believed them with all their hearts. They allowed the word to enter deep into their souls and their hearts were filled with gratitude to God for sending his Son into the world. They bowed their hearts to Christ as Lord, and they embraced every part of his teaching, not picking and choosing what they would obey but accepting all that he said. So they escaped the corruption that is in the world through sin and they received the gift of eternal life.