HE GAVE THEM AUTHORITY
Luke 9:1-2 Then He called His twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
Jesus’ authority came from God. In John’s gospel, many times and in many different ways, Jesus let us know that He didn’t do anything on His own. He said what He heard the Father say. He did what He saw the Father do. Jesus’ authority was delegated to Him by God, the Father. The centurion, who Jesus said had great faith, was a man under authority. In other words, his authority was delegated to him. With that delegated authority, the centurion told this one to come, and he came, and this one to go, and he went. The centurion recognized that Jesus, too, had delegated authority and is why he told Jesus to speak the Word. The centurion knew, because of Jesus’ delegated authority, the sickness would have to obey and leave. In today’s verse, it’s important to realize that this delegated authority Jesus operated in could also be given to others. And because Jesus only did what the Father did, God, the Father, must have told Him He could give this authority to others because that is exactly what He did.
The 12 disciples couldn’t do any of the things Jesus did until He gave them this delegated authority. The disciples, who later became the Apostles, didn’t get this ability because of their title or specific call; they received the delegated authority because Jesus gave it to them. This delegated authority was what Jesus Himself operated in when healing the sick and casting out devils. Jesus told the 12 to preach and teach the same thing He was preaching and teaching, which was the Kingdom of God. That is what Jesus spent most of His preaching and teaching time on was on the Kingdom of God and how to operate in that Kingdom. The disciples, because of this delegated authority, were now doing exactly the same thing Jesus did in His ministry. There were now thirteen (Jesus and the 12) doing the same thing and getting the same results. We are also supposed to be doing what the 12 did, which is to preach the Kingdom, cast out devils, and heal the sick. Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel because we, too, have delegated authority given to us by the Master Himself. So, let us go and do likewise!