SOTM 40-Wow!

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/som-40-wow/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29).</strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Power</strong></p><ul><li>Jesus’ teaching is not only true, but it is powerful…..</li><li>And compact!<ul><li>As one commentator has pointed out, "The Golden Rule [is] just eleven <i>words; </i>by contrast, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the U.S. government's attempt to oblige ethical character into the financial statements of American corporations, has eleven <i>titles</i> (major sections). It is one of the most complicated pieces of legislation in the history of the American republic and, in the economies of scale, places a disproportionate burden on small companies which were not the cause of the adoption" (Richard David Ramsey, "Business Ethics in the Sermon on the Mount," <i>Leaven: A Journal of Christian Ministry</i> [Pepperdine University: vol.16, no.4, 2008], 180).</li><li>How convoluted are human attempts to exact honesty and fairness! How simple is the command Jesus gave us!</li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>Authority</strong></p><ul><li>Matthew says what astonished the people was that Jesus “taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” What does that mean?</li><li>When the scribes taught, they spoke from the authority of others, usually Moses (<strong>Matt 23:2</strong>).</li><li>Or they taught and followed the “tradition of the elders” (<strong>Matt 15:2</strong>).</li><li>Mishnah (c.200 AD)—disagreements rife. Inconsistencies.</li><li>Many times the rabbis disagreed with one another about what was permissible under the Law.</li><li>They did not dare to speak in their own name—by their own authority. In contrast, Jesus spoke from his own authority—fulfilling, expanding, and modifying the teaching of even Moses himsel