“Tim Tebow Speaks with Authority”
Matthew 7:28-29 MSG Translation
When Tim Tebow speaks, people listen!
Writers and speakers often quote from specialists on a subject because they aren’t experts themselves and haven’t earned the right to speak authoritatively about it. Last weekend I was fortunate to listen to the testimony of Tim Tebow who spoke on Mothers Day about Mothers who are the real champions, the dedication needed to play the sport of college football, and what it takes to live a godly life while competing in a violent college sport at a level that made him one of the best that ever played the game. Have you listened to his acceptance speech when he won the Heisman Trophy award? You should. It’s available on our website for the next week. Watch him and you will know, as I do, why people listen as Tim Tebow speaks about these things.
We listen because he speaks as a person with authority on the subject. Jesus took Palestine by storm when He delivered His Sermon on the Mount. In these last two verses of the sermon it was said of His audience that they listened in amazement because he spoke as one with authority, not like their teachers from the synagogues who often spoke with a double tongue. People want to hear someone that shoots straight with them and makes sense when they speak!
That’s why there was such a fuss in Memphis when Tim Tebow came to town for a couple of weeks. He stayed with his agent, Jimmy Sexton, and worked out with high school receivers in preparation for his new team the Denver Broncos. But everyone wants a piece of that Tebow magic and people were bothering him everywhere he went. The Broncos said the sales for his number 15 jersey have broken all records for rookies. But with all the fuss, Tim is the same unassuming, down to earth guy he was when he was winning conference and national titles at Gator Nation in Florida. Sexton asked him how he stayed so humble, why he didn’t get the big head like so many other exceptional athletes.
Tim said, “You have to decide what you have to be proud about, and being a football player doesn’t make you any more special than anyone else. Football gives me a platform and with that platform comes a responsibility and obligation to make a difference in people’s lives.” Spoken with true authority! When people with authority speak, you listen to them.
In these two verses, Matthew 7:28-29, this is the third time in His sermon Jesus hints that He is more than a mere man. But He does it with such humility that people hardly noticed what He was saying. In Matthew 5:11-12, He suggests that His disciples would be punished for following Him as were the Old Testament prophets for worshipping Jehovah. And in Matthew 7:21, when compared with Luke’s version of the sermon, it is clear that Jesus considers Himself on a par with His Father.
And there you have it. Jesus spoke as one with the Father because He HAS AUTHORITY! Beloved, when we speak as one with Jesus, it isn’t OUR authority but we share His authority AND His humility. Teddy Roosevelt told of a proverb he picked up while visiting West Africa sometime around 1900. When he became president he used that proverb in a speech in Chicago in 1903: “Speak softly but carry a big stick.” Our authority comes from Jesus. Use it boldly but wisely in your living testimony.