"They *came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders *came to Him, and began saying to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?" And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me." They began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From men’?"—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. Answering Jesus, they *said, "We do not know." And Jesus *said to them, "Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
Good Morning my beloved,
When we hear the word "authority," it carries a certain feeling of intimidation, in addition to its literal meaning of privilege and permission to determine the rules, enforce obedience or exact judgment. Needless to say, we're living in an age where nobody wants anyone telling them what to do, even when they know it’s in their best interest. In fact, everyone wants to challenge authority, especially government authority. This is what happens when parents model this kind of rule-breaking
behavior, it causes their children to think they can do whatever they want, that they are untouchable, because the rules don’t apply to them. Even those who profess to be Christians no longer look to the Word of God for direction and guidance, they're looking to an immoral culture. That's why we have churches and pastors, who no longer represent God, promoting same-sex marriage and transgenderism, even abortion and mutilating surgeries on innocent children, without parents knowledge or permission. As Christians,we must uphold what Scripture teaches, which can be difficult when we may personally disagree.
But when we avoid submitting to authority, we have decided to go the way of rebellion, which is Satan's work, unless it goes against the principals set forth in God's Word, then we must obey God. The world
stage is currently being set for an anti-God movement,
and the deceiver who will come and set himself up as the counterfeit god, as mainstream Christianity continues to turn further and further away from the true teaching of Christ. 1 John 2:19 he says "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us." While many biblical translators and scholars widely believe that apostasy is departure from one's faith, I believe that John makes a very important point, those who turn away from faith in Christ never really were saved to begin with. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus emphatically said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." That's an amazing claim, which He repeatedly validated throughout His ministry. Those who belong to Christ, love the Truth and live under His authority. Religious hypocrites may claim to follow Jesus but no interest in the Truth, they deny His Authority and challenge everything Jesus teaches, to justify living in rebellion to God, they will pay a tremendous price!
Matthew 7:22-23, "Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’" That's why false teaching is so dangerous. That was the issue with the Jewish religious leaders, they were never really seeking the Truth, their hearts were too hardened to listen to anything He said, they only sought to challenge everything He said and did to publicly discredit Him, in order to kill Him. God forbid that anyone who claims to believe in Him today would be so stubborn and hard hearted.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word, we are grateful for the Authority that comes directly from You, what a privilege it is to hold the source of Truth in our hands, which boldly speaks to our own hearts, in whom You have planted Your Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to examine ourselves and make us faithful, so we might walk worthy of the high calling placed upon our lives, surrendering completely to His Authority, following Him on the narrow road that leads to Your kingdom. Father, I pray for those who have never embraced the Truth, who refuse to submit to the authority of Christ, I ask that in Your mercy You would break down the barriers of unbelief and soften their hardened hearts by whatever means necessary, and save them even today, before it's too late. For Your glory and Christ's sake.
In His name we ask and pray.
Amen
Today's Message: Answer Me!
Open your Bibles with me, if you will and and turn to Mark chapter 11. While this is the end of the eleventh chapter, it is only the beginning of an ongoing confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders, which continues all the way through chapter 12. It's interesting that there were many conversations with Jesus, and on twenty-five of those occasions, He was asked a direct question, that required only a simple answer. He only gave a direct response on four of those occasions, and on the other twenty-one occasions, He answered questions with a counter-questions, probing questions to make His listeners think, personal questions to reveal His listeners beliefs, and provocative questions to confound and convict His listeners, stopping them in their tracks. And that’s exactly what we’re going to see in our passage today. In invite you to follow along with me as I read verses 27 through 33, and take note of the four times the word "authority" is used. I trust that you will join me in opening your hearts and your minds, to hear what God has to say to each of us today.
"They *came again to Jerusalem. And as He
was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the
elders *came to Him, and began saying to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?" And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me." They began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From men’?"—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. Answering Jesus, they *said, "We do not know." And Jesus *said to them, "Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
Let's look at verse 27, "They *came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders *came to Him." This is Wednesday morning when they came again to the city of Jerusalem. You will remember that in the evening, they went back to Bethany to stay at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. In his parallel account, Matthew 21, he adds the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him while He was teaching, Luke 20 tells us He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel. Keep in mind, the day before on Tuesday, He went into the temple, He cleaned the place up, He overturned tables,
made a whip, and drove everybody out. He didn't seek their approval. Now, He's back in the temple without their permission, walking around, which is a very rabbinic way to teach, teaching contrary to their teaching no doubt, which in their twisted minds constitutes blasphemy. Blasphemy is the ultimate crime, punishable by death. Being the religious leaders of Israel, this is a huge issue, because they believed that they were the authorities. Still consumed by their anger for what He had done the day before, they've come to confront Him. In other words, they want to know just who He thinks He is saying things and doing these things without their permission. They are convinced they've got Him cornered, and that is where the confrontation begins, which according to Luke, was actually more like an attack because he uses the verb "ephistémi."
Verse 28, "And began saying to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?" Notice they didn’t ask why He did these things? They already knew they knew they were guilty of fleecing the flock instead of feeding the sheep. They knew He made Himself equal with God, they're only asking to try to get Him condemned for being a blasphemer. They knew He hadn’t gone to any rabbinical school that would have given Him credentials, they are basically mocking Him by asking who gives Him the approval for His actions. But Jesus, knowing their intentions, fully aware of what they wanted Him to say, was too wise for them, so instead He makes them an offer, in the form of a counter question. By the way, answering a question with a question was a typical rabbinical way to teach, this is a brilliant, legitimate question, He’s not evading their question by asking some random trick question to stop the chief priests and the scribes in their tracks.
Verses 29-30, "And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me." It seems simple enough, right? You answer Me, and then I will tell you what you want to know. The problem is, they knew the answer, they just can't say it! We all know that John the Baptist was the forerunner of the Messiah, chosen by God to preach the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin at the Jordan River, in preparation for the day when the Messiah shows up. Then, when Jesus shows up, John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." He knows they can't answer, if they say by men, not from God, they’ve got a real problem on their hands because everybody knew that John was a real prophet. If they say that John's ministry is from God, then, they have a bigger problem on their hands, because then they have to admit Jesus is the promised Messiah. There is no denying that Jesus has them between a rock and a hard place. Either way they answer, they're going to have a major problem. That's the thing about Jesus, He confronts you with the Truth, right where you live. Like in Luke 6, when He asks, "Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" You have to understand the praises of men was very important to them, power and public recognition was the reason behind everything the did, so they have to be very careful not to upset the people.
We can assume there must have been a delay, a period of silence because Jesus says "Answer Me," by the way, Mark's the only one who records that. I love how Jesus quickly demonstrates His authority, He’s demanding an answer to His proposed question, telling them they have to make a choice. You can almost picture them helplessly standing there, with a blank stare on their faces, like a deer in headlights. How quickly they went from boldly asking Jesus "Who do You think you are?," to insecurely asking themselves, "What are we going to do?" Obviously, there's a lot riding on their answer, so they need to have a meeting to avoid putting themselves in a difficult position.
Verse 31, "They began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’" The verb "dialogízomai," tells us this more than just a normal discussion, they were literally going back and forth thoroughly, in a way that typically leads to a confused conclusion. OK, we can't say that, so they decide to weigh the other option.
Verse 32, " But shall we say, ‘From men’?"—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet." If they say John’s baptism was from men, Luke fills in the blank, "all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet." Wait, that's not good either, in fact, it's worse. They people will kill us! Now, they’re stuck. That's the problem with false religion, when unbelief investigates the truth, no matter how much evidence you give them, it always comes up with the wrong answers. There's only one thing left to do.
That brings us to verse 33, "Answering Jesus, they *said, "We do not know." Let's stop there for a moment, these are the trusted religious leaders of Israel, it's their responsibility to know! It's their duty to observe religious matters. Can you imagine how hard that must have been for these self-righteous to say "We do not know" in front everyone? It really makes them seem unofficial. Actually, it’s not that they didn’t know the answer; it’s that they didn’t have the courage to publicly acknowledge the Authority of Jesus because those who accept Christ must live under His authority.
It's hard to hear God's voice, when you've already determined what you want Him to say. They didn't care about what was true, they only cared about furthering their own agenda. I have been around long enough to know, that's the way it is with false religion, it will ignore all the evidence just to maintain Satan's lies. It's like trying to slam a revolving door.
Now, let's look at the end of the verse, "And Jesus *said to them, "Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things." Jesus is done talking to them, He refuses engage them any longer. Friends, that’s a horrible spot to be in. As I've stated many times, God’s grace has its limits. When you continue to reject the Light, He will eventually turn the Light off. You don’t ever want to be in that position because once Jesus says "I’m done." you're damned! In John 12:35-36, Jesus said, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light."
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "Behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of salvation." I often hear people say that they don’t share their faith because they're afraid they will offend someone. It's better to offend someone to heaven by speaking the Truth, than to lead them to Hell by speaking lies that blind them to the Truth. We need to engage people the way that Jesus did, in Truth, with love and compassion, offering them grace and forgiveness. Sometimes it's more difficult for some people to make strong statements than it is to ask questions. One question to ask is "If you were to die today, do you know for sure where you’d go?" If they say "I'm a good person, I'm sure I'll go to heaven." You can ask "What makes you so sure God will let you into heaven?" Take a genuine interest in their response, you can respond by asking them to tell you more about why they think that way, while planting seeds of Truth.
In Closing..
Over the years, I've been asked many times, "How can you possibly be so arrogant to tell anyone they're going to Hell?" My answer is always "I'm not, God already said it, in His Word, I'm just repeating what He said. Let me show you." You'd be surprised at how many times I've heard, "Actually, I've never really read that...." Folks, it's not too late if you've not yet embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you can either walk away, saying I'm not going to believe that message." But when He says "I'm done!" and turns out the Light, it's the end of the discussion. Or you can say today's the day because I assure you by the Authority of Scripture, Christ IS going to come, the only question is when. It would be a terrifying shame if you're not ready because you were willfully blind, left to face the condemnation that comes to unbelievers. God has revealed Himself over and over again, even as He does now in this message, He's asking you for an answer, "Do you stand with these religious leaders who rejected Me or will you receive Me as as Savior and Lord? Answer Me!"
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2023 All Rights Reserved
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2023 All Rights Reserved