CHRIST ASSEMBLING WITH HIS OWN (1)
CHRIST ASSEMBLING WITH HIS OWN (1)
Acts 1:21,22; Matthew 3:13-17; Matthew 5:1-12
JT It is said in Acts 1, in view of the appointment of an apostle, that he should be from those who assembled with the disciples during all the time in which the Lord [p. 3] Jesus came in and went out among them, beginning from the baptism of John until Jesus was received up. It is thought that the Lord would help us to consider in Matthew’s gospel, what feature of the truth entered into certain occasions in which He came in among the disciples and went out as indicated there.
Our consideration of this subject should familiarise us with divine activities as seen in Christ in assembly service; whether it be the assembly meeting for the Lord’s supper, and all that enters into that, or the meeting for prayer, meetings such as this for scriptural inquiry, or for prophetic ministry, or even for gospel testimony. We shall, in this way, become familiarised with the thought of the Lord’s movements, not as on earth, but by the Spirit now; nevertheless, His movements. How varied the truth is; how each occasion of His coming in implies something distinctive, for in coming in He has confidence in us. It may be, however, to rebuke or to reprove us, as we shall see in these meetings of the disciples. In going out, He would leave us with the understanding that we are to carry on during the period of His absence. The fact that an apostle was required to have that experience shows how important it is.
Christianity is not a dead religion, but is marked by activity and intelligence; firstly divine activity, and then our activity, levitical and priestly, and especially in authoritative service. Unless service in some measure takes on authority, it has no effect. We have no formal [p. 2] authority, but there is to be moral weight, and apostleship implies that. The period selected by the Spirit here begins with the baptism of John; not from John’s birth, nor from the Incarnation, but the period when Christ’s public ministry began until it finished; as it is said in the verses in Acts, “until the day in which he was taken up”; right up to that day His service went on.
We may see in the baptism of John, the beginning of a period. There was the announcement from heaven of sonship; and, as in Christ, how pleasing it was to heaven. He had come under God’s eye for the previous thirty years, and the accumulated delight of heaven was expressed there. Then, as He is about to go up, He presents Himself to the disciples living. It is clear on the one hand that heaven is engaged with Christ in the testimony; and, as it saw Him here at thirty years. We too are to be engaged with Him as He would have us see Him. He was seen of the disciples as He presented Himself; meaning that He took up a particular attitude in which He would have them view Him.
HH Would 1 Timothy 3:16 fit in with that a little? “God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory”. Would that cover the period from the baptism of John until the time of His going up?
JT I think it would. It is the mystery of piety connected with the assembly which is the pillar and base of the truth. Timothy was to know how one ought to behave oneself in it.
C Would you say there was great power in the authority of the word that came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son”?
JT That is what I thought we might get clear about to begin with; how the Person of Christ comes before us; then His movements as coming in and going out. It says, “All the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us”. We have first heaven’s testimony; then Christ’s movements in the period mentioned; and finally His presentation of Himself to them living before He went up.
C There were those at that moment who could appreciate the voice from heaven.
JT Well, one would hope that there are those now, ready to listen to what heaven has to say about Christ, as also to appreciate His own presentation of Himself to us, as in the Lord’s supper.
EP Peter says, “It is necessary therefore, that one of these should be a witness”.
JT The word ‘ necessary ‘ there is important. It was not a mere idea that came into their minds. The horrible death of Judas is spoken of, and we know how far away he was in his ways from the ways of Christ. We are to be warned by his ways. It is said he “became guide to those who took Jesus; for he was numbered amongst us, and had received a part in this service”. Then we are told of the kind of death he met with, and the Psalms are brought in to testify. “Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no dweller in it; and, Let another take his overseership” (verse 20). There is a vacancy, and the Spirit of God stresses why there is a vacancy. Persons dropping out of the testimony leave places to be filled, and hence the necessity of this matter. “It is necessary therefore, that of the men who have assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, ... one of these should be a witness with us of his resurrection.” That there should be no more such vacancies, each of us should stand true in his place.
HH The Holy Spirit would have regard for what is here now. It is not a lower level in principle than what came out in Christ.
JT That is what I was thinking. Matthew 4:16 connects the light with Christ here below; it sprang tip; it is not spoken of as shining down from [p. 4] heaven. Christ was the centre of everything whether in heaven or on earth; and so it is a question now of what He was. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). The light of life was in Capernaum where He dwelt, and that runs through. His coming in and going out would all bear on that, the kind of life that was there; that life of movement and of light.
JWD Do you mean that the testimony of christianity, as the result of life in the saints, corresponds with the testimony in Christ personally?
JT That is it exactly. What is happening now in the world is to bring out what is in the saints. God knows what is in us. We have had a good deal of light in an objective way; for one hundred years it has been shining. I believe the present pressure is to bring out the life. The life was the light. It is not simply what we hold in the way of doctrine, but what we are, and that is seen in the way in which we come in and go out amongst the saints; each one. The subject of eternal life had a great place some years back, and I believe it was for this very purpose; that there should be substance; not only doctrine, but substance. “In him was life”, John says; that is the idea of substance, and that becomes light. It was light in Christ, and it is to be light in us. So John speaks of that which “is true in him and in you”. “I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which ye have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye heard. Again, I write a new commandment to you, which thing is true in him and in you” (1 John 2:7,8). The old commandment would be that which is in Christ — substance; the new commandment is in the saints. Hence it is a question with us of what each one is.
SP Would you link the word in 1 Samuel 18:13 with this? It is said of David that “he went out and came in before the people”. The people had ascribed [p. 5] a great place and power to David in saying, “Saul hath smitten his thousands, and David his ten thousands”. Then in verse 13, we read, “And Saul removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people”. Would you connect that with love in the saints?
JT Quite so. David “went out and came in” before them. Christ “came in and went out”. It is also said of David that “thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel” (2 Samuel 5:2). He went out and came in. Many have gone out and never come back. Saul did not come back, he was head and shoulders above all; a commendable young man when anointed, but he took his own way and never, as it were, came back. As following my own will, I do not come back. David took the people out and brought them back; he completed the matter. Samuel too; his circuit (1 Samuel 7:16) means that he always came back to the point at which he began.
HH We need the subjective side in our souls in order to rightly take account of the objective.
JT Well, the truth is never verified in us until it can be said, “which thing is true in him and in you”. The truth is never truly held in a mere intellectual sense — it is to be true in us. John’s epistle is to bring out this very point; hence he begins with the tangibleness of what came in in Christ — it was substantial. Christianity is no mere theoretical religion, such as the Eastern religions, or even judaism. It is Christ, and expressed here below; “which thing is true in him and in you”.
JRH What Peter says, in Acts 1, “It is necessary therefore, that of the men who have assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us”, would give greater importance to our meetings if we look at them in this light.
JT That is good. The footnote to verse 21 reads, “or ‘ at every time that ‘.” Each time would have its [p. 6] own distinctiveness and we shall see, from the facts that will come before us in Matthew, that it was so. There was always something distinctive when the Lord was among the disciples.
AEH To refer back to 1 Timothy 3, would you say that the secret of the mystery of piety is spirituality?
JT Yes. It is real. The mystery of piety involves what is substantial. God was manifest in the flesh. It is not a mere theory. John says, “Which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1). It was all real. Their hands handled Him. He was not an austere religious leader, holding his followers at a distance. He allowed them to be familiar with Him, one of them lying on His bosom, showing the liberty that the Lord afforded to His own as coming in and going out amongst them. Peter might enquire from Matthias, Were you at such and such a meeting? Peter could say I was in each of the meetings. “The lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26). That is, he was the twelfth. Peter could easily question him as to whether he was at a particular meeting. Had he been careless in attending occasions in which the Lord was, he would not qualify for apostleship. That brings out the importance of attending all the meetings now. We miss so much because we fail to attend. Take the first great thought, the baptism of John. Were you there that day? No? Well, it was one of the most wonderful of all the days. The Lord came from Galilee to John to be baptised, and the heavens opened and said of him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Who would not say, I wish I had been there; I am sorry I missed it?
JP I was wondering if the question of having assembled all the time, would help us in the matter of formation and acquiring substance? Here it is the men who have assembled. Manhood would be developed.
JT [p. 7] Yes. The idea of man here is important. It enters into the position of the apostles peculiarly. The Lord uses it in speaking to His Father, after the discourses with them in John 13 to 17. In chapter 17:6 He says, “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world”. Not simply persons, but men. Manhood certainly underlay the apostolic position.
JTJr Did Moses have this in mind when making his request in Numbers 27:17, “Set a man over the assembly, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the assembly of Jehovah be not as sheep that have no shepherd”?
JT Yes. It confirms what we have been saying about continuing. What is needed now is men, but of course that in principle includes sisters, as well as brothers, because the first word for man covers both. “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26); that was the order of being. But manhood in the sense of distinction is to appear in all of us. He “called their name Adam, in the day when they were created” (Genesis 5:2), implies this. The appointment of an apostle is a test to bring out this point of what is necessary in service, involving authority. It is acquaintance with the Lord Jesus as coming in and going out amongst them.
HH It is not what is optional — it is necessary. Some of us have made requirements optional.
JT I think the way meetings are attended indicates that, that I may come, or not come, without any feeling of delinquency; but at Pentecost all the saints were there — they were all present. The Holy Spirit coming in at that point would mean that He recognised and honoured that. The crowd of names would mean that each person was distinguished in life. The name arises from what one is, and as being living. The experience of going through that period with the Lord developed maturity; it should mark every one within; otherwise you have [p. 8] complaints and questionings. There is a tendency in young people to enquire complainingly — Why is God allowing this or that? What is needed is bowing to the will of God in the exercise of patience, and that flows from manhood.
SP These features would safeguard life in the fellowship, over against the man in the preceding verses, whose bowels gushed out, whose feelings were entirely out of control.
JT Quite so. Judas was utterly wanting in right affections and compassions.
EP These men had no official status, had they? “Assembled with us”, Peter says. Would the Lord’s coming up out of the waters of baptism suggest a similar thought; coming up in that lowly way?
JT That is worthy of our consideration. We have had before us what Judas was, and the sorrowful end — the field of blood. He gave the name to the field. “Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no dweller in it” (Acts 1:20). It is a striking condemnation of the person who had dwelt there. Now in Christ, as presented in Matthew we have righteousness. It is one of the first things. Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptised of him. Others came from distinguished places. “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the country round the Jordan, and were baptised by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5,6). They came from Jerusalem, but that did not prove that they were right. Jesus, we are told, came from Galilee — that is a place of no account religiously. What would be commendable in Him was not from any place here; it was what was in Him; what He was. “Altogether that which I say unto you.” It is what He was. He came “from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised of him; but John urgently forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee”; John was right there, I suppose, but persisted in maintaining that attitude. The Lord answered,
“[p. 9] Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”. That is a very important point in our inquiry.
AEH Since this is the first occasion that may be included in the period Peter mentioned, would you say that the first and outstanding feature of manhood is the ability to go out of sight, so there may be room for God. Is that the fulfilling of all righteousness?
JT Just so. The Lord does not say that He alone was fulfilling all righteousness; He would bring John to see the importance of righteousness, all righteousness is stressed. The Lord says it becometh us. Hence everyone in each meeting is in this. It would preclude all complaint as to what this one and that one is doing. What am I doing? Paul urges the Corinthians to “do what is right”, whatever they thought of him (2 Corinthians 13:7). Everyone must do what is right — “it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”. The assembly is the home of all righteousness, every phase of it.
HH It would be righteousness on our part to own at the outset that we are unrighteous; and so we accept baptism and disappear in that way.
JT That is so. The gospel proposes righteousness from God, but then there is the fulfilling of it: “the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us”. It is where God formally asserted His rights. They were perfectly answered to in Christ. They are answered to now in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). It is by the Spirit, not by legal effort, that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us.
HH Christians accept the idea that we have no righteousness of our own. We all stand in relation to Christ. Is that so?
JT Faith is reckoned to us as righteousness. That came out in Abraham. The Holy Spirit, however, enables us to fulfil all righteousness. The Holy Spirit maintains in believers what is in keeping with the cross;
that is practical righteousness. “If ye know that he is righteous, know that every one who practises righteousness is begotten of him” (1 John 2:29).
JTJr Peter’s word in 1 Peter 3:12 helps us, “because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears towards their supplications”.
JT The righteous are also pleasing to God, so that the word is, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. It does not say all My delight here, as it is often misquoted. I think the word “all” is left out so as to make room for the righteous, those who are after Christ; they come under the divine eye as He does. What is true in Him is true in us, and it is pleasing in us even as in Christ. Room is allowed for the extension of what came out in Christ at the Jordan, making room for what was to come out by the Spirit in the saints; the body of Christ must be what is in accord with Christ.
JST Does that connect with the statement in Ephesians 4:24 that “the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”?
JT It links on, but there it is the new man, which is a creation. Christ is never said to be that, but it corresponds with Christ. The creation refers to us only, and that we are constituted in accord with Christ. It includes all that which is effected by the Spirit from Pentecost to the end of the dispensation. There is only one new man. In Colossians, it is freshness, but in Ephesians it is newness in the sense of being different from anything that has ever been.
JWD We cannot get beyond what is in Christ. Everything in the saints is an extension of what is in Him.
JT The extension is made room for in what was uttered by the voice from heaven. It implied that room is left for increase. The divine ideal was met in Christ, and we are brought to that. All was perfect [p. 11] at the beginning. John in his first epistle begins with this: “That which was from the beginning”.
WW Would the extension be seen in the last chapter of Romans?
JT There are about twenty persons saluted, and the comments show the variety of that which is of Christ. What a wonderful thing that was in Rome; the extension of what came out in Christ, seen in the Roman capital! In this gospel when the women came to the sepulchre they were adjusted, the angel telling them to go to the disciples and say to them that the Lord was risen and that they should see Him in Galilee. They went immediately, and the Lord met them and said, “Hail”. They were moving in subjection. No one will be saluted from heaven unless they are moving in the light of heaven. The Lord said, “Hail”, and He uses the word ‘ brethren ‘, it implied elevation from the word ‘ disciples ‘.
This matter of righteousness should be taken hold of — all righteousness; the assembly requires it; it is the home of it. If I question anyone in the assembly, I must see that all righteousness applies to me. It is an all-round matter.
HB Are the disciples being governed by righteousness in their coming to Jesus?
JT Yes. That is the next thing, in order that we may see the significance of the baptism of John, because that is the beginning of the period alluded to in Matthew 3:15. In answer to the Lord’s word, John took a lowly place in obedience though he was a little wrong in so urgently forbidding the Lord. If the Lord says anything, submission is the first point. When His mother speaks to Him about the wine, she accepts adjustment, and says, “Whatever he may say to you, do”.
Of John we read “then he suffers him. And Jesus, having been baptised, went up straightway from the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to him”. The Lord is getting approval in this course of righteousness.
[p. 12] It is one of the most precious things, the sense of heaven’s approval. They opened to Him, “and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him: and behold, a voice out of the heavens saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. The Lord was Himself given to know heaven’s interest in and approval of Him. That may be carried on to each of us as corresponding to Christ. Heaven makes known its approval of us in the fulfilment of righteousness, especially if I am doing something to put myself out of sight.
JWD What form would heaven’s approval take?
JT Heaven would find a way. Of course everything is now by the Spirit, but sometimes He may use brethren to express His view of you. Heaven is concerned about Paul going to Jerusalem, and in every city, it is said, the Spirit witnessed to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him. The Spirit would undoubtedly witness through the brethren in each city, and we know how Agabus portrayed before Paul’s own eyes what would happen to him at Jerusalem; that was according to heaven’s thoughts. So the brethren may be used of God to give me to understand that I am approved there. They may lay their hands on me, or the like. Then again I would be before God in prayer, and I may get an inkling of it there. Heaven has its own way of giving us to understand its mind about us.
JWD Why do you say heaven rather than God?
JT Well, it is a general form of expression. If we say that London or Washington says so and so, we mean the persons of authority in these places. In the gospel we read as here, “Lo, the heavens were opened to him”. I only speak in that general way, but the Voice is what we ought to notice. It is substantial. It conveys the thought of the person who speaks, but it is the Voice. It is like handwriting.
JTJr Would the book of Daniel help? Nebuchadnezzar had to recognise that the heavens rule (Daniel 4:26).
[p. 13] We have to recognise in regard to the present pressure that heaven is ruling in spite of what happens down here.
JT Just so. That is the determining factor. Heaven is asserting its rights and we have to recognise it. That is how the matter stands. Christ in heaven makes all heaven aglow. Christ on earth draws out heaven’s delight, “This is my beloved Son”.
TM Would this be a certain fulfilment of what is recorded in Isaiah 64:1, “Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, — that the mountains might flow down at thy presence”?
JT There the prophet is urging Jehovah to come down in a judicial way. Here the Father is addressing the supreme Object of His affection. In the epistles, inclusive of the Acts, heaven is asserting itself in regard of what Christ is up there. “Received up in glory”. It is the sound from heaven in Acts 2 and the Spirit coming in, laying hold of certain persons in relation to what is up there; with a view to testimony down here. Then the light from heaven in chapter 9, brighter than the sun; that is, it is the excellence, the superiority of it, the shining out of Christ, being up there; and finally the vessel from heaven which came down and finally went up and stayed there.
AB The heavens were opened to Him, but in Matthew the voice apparently is to others; not to Himself. “This is my beloved Son”, as if setting the Lord forth in an exemplary way.
JT Yes, to call attention to Him. In Mark and Luke it is, “Thou art my beloved Son”.
HH Does that cover all the thirty years of the Lord’s life up to this time?
JT I should say so. “In whom I have found my delight”. It would take in the whole life of Christ from the beginning.
HB Why does Matthew use the words “lo” and “behold” so [p. 14] much?
JT Well, they express feeling. You want to be feeling in the testimony. Interjections are generally expressive of feeling.
In chapter 5 we have, “But seeing the crowds, he went up into the mountain, and having sat down, his disciples came to him; and, having opened his mouth, he taught them, saying”. He went up into the mountain. Matthew’s way of presenting the record seems to indicate that things are difficult in a way; because it is a question of testing out what is in us, whether we are genuine. The Lord does not ask the disciples to come to Him. He goes up, and “his disciples came to him”. Matthew presents the disciples as corresponding with Christ here. This is the first instance. They come to Him on a mountain. He went up, and they went up; they did not express any difficulty about going to Him. We are apt to express difficulties, and make excuses when absent from the seasons in which the Lord comes in amongst us, but here they had none. They came to Him on the mountain. The point in the whole section, chapters 5 to 7, is to bring out the legislative features of the new system. It is important to understand the principles of legislation in the divine system. The Lord here is legislating for the kingdom, and the disciples were with Him. The disciples came to Jesus. This is one of the great features of the comings in and goings out of the Lord; what He says is authoritative. Fourteen times in chapters 5 and 6, He says, “I say unto you”.
EP These blessings cannot be gainsaid. They stand.
JT It is very striking that in the legislative branch, so to speak, exacting as it is, and authoritative, the idea of blessing comes to light. Blessed are certain ones. It is mentioned in the abstract, first; “Blessed are the poor in spirit ... Blessed they that mourn ... Blessed the meek ... Blessed they who hunger and thirst after righteousness ... Blessed the merciful ... Blessed the pure in heart ... Blessed the peace-makers ...
[p. 15] Blessed they who are persecuted on account of righteousness”; and finally, “Blessed are ye”. We want to come into that. The Lord is opening up a wide range of blessings, but He does not say ‘ ye ‘ until He comes to speak of suffering. “Blessed are ye when they may reproach and persecute you, and say every wicked thing against you, lying, for my sake”. Well, I can put myself in there, but it means I must accept persecution. “As it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter” (Romans 8:36). That is the attitude. So you are not surprised as you take up that attitude, and there is blessing attached to it.
WGT Matthew 5 seems to be what you may term acceptable legislation; that which is an advantage to the disciples.
JT Yes. We begin with blessing. You come into the kingdom as a sufferer, and if it becomes hard, as it will, you are not surprised. Peter says afterwards, “Beloved, take not as strange the fire of persecution which has taken place amongst you for your trial, as if a strange thing was happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). It is not to be regarded as strange.
JWD This feature is the door to the kingdom.
JT I think so. The Lord is calling attention, in the abstract, to certain persons who are blessed, and He does not say ‘ ye ‘ until He comes to the matter of suffering. We can begin there anyway.
JWD These blessings are in relation to the kingdom.
JT They are seen here as merited. It is not as Ephesians, where it is stated that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (chapter 1:3). Those are sovereign. These in our chapter are merited. God begins in that way. The Lord does not address the disciples personally, until it comes to persecution, and everyone may take up that attitude. The ye, as indicating those who suffer, corresponds with the poor [p. 16] in spirit, and those that mourn; those that are meek; those that hunger and thirst after righteousness; those pure in heart; those who make peace. I accept the attitude of a sufferer as seeing that it means blessing, and that is how Paul is viewed when he was converted. The Lord said, “For I will shew to him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16). The suffering attitude is the way out; it avoids all complaint and resistance.
AHP Would this show the way by which we are brought under the principles of righteousness? We are told that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
JT Yes. They are blessed who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Rem These things would mark one who had been with the Lord through His ministry, as referred to in Acts 1.
JT These chapters in Matthew describe one of the occasions or seasons when He came in and went out. In after days, a disciple who missed it, would be sorry that he had not been there; one might have said the mountain was too high and my heart was too weak. You know how often such things are said as mere excuses. Well, those who thus speak miss this wonderful instruction.
JAT The suffering, as spoken of here, would be connected with the apostles. The Lord had passed through the same suffering.
JT Yes. In addressing them He said, Ye. “Blessed are ye when they may reproach and persecute you, and say every wicked thing against you, lying, for my sake. Rejoice and exult, for your reward is great in the heavens; for thus have they persecuted the prophets who were before you”. He goes on to say after that, “Ye are the salt of the earth”.
JWD What do you mean by the way out is by [p. 17] suffering?
JT The way out of the sphere of complaint and resistance is to accept suffering. Therefore, the apostle says, “In all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us” (Romans 8:37).
VDS “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14).
JT Quite so. Peter follows up this matter of the kingdom in his epistles, and suffering has a great place in them. He says, “That the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).
JRH Are you emphasising that at this first season at the Jordan, the Person of the Christ comes into view, and in the second season on the mountain, it is a question of His commandments?
JT Yes, He is owned from heaven — He is authorised, so to speak. The position occupied by the Lord here is one of delegated authority, and the voice from heaven made a basis for that. In chapters 5 to 7, He is using the authority; it is conveyed in the words, “I say unto you”. He was representing heaven really in this way of authority. Matthew presents the kingdom, the authority of heaven vested in Christ.