I am a Jesus pusher!!! From that time Jesus began to preach (Mathew 4:17). Adequate preaching must be permeated with authority. According to Matthew, Jesus preached with great authority. At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, he records, And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes (Matthew 7:28-29). Jesus’ authority came from the Father through the Scriptures. The scribes mixed their declarations of the Scriptures with their own traditions and interpretations. This reduced their presentations to their own opinions; it produced great division and arguments. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presented to them the fullness of the Scripture. In fact, He proclaimed the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17-20). This great sermon was the proclamation of the content’s fulfillment. A brilliant mind, talented persuasion, or skillful debate, were not the basis of His preaching. Jesus was saturated in the Father through the Scriptures.
Jesus, after being raised from the dead, shared with two of His disciples. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27). He based His entire life on the Scriptures. He believed in the validity of the first five books of the Old Testament. This was the basis of His authority. As Jesus shared the Scriptures with these two disciples their hearts burned within them (Luke 24:32). I want Jesus to share His Word with me. Does my heart burn? I am a Jesus pusher!!!