Mark 11:22-33 "Have Faith in God"

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Thank you Thomas for stepping out to lead our men in the word yesterday at the men’s breakfast… what a great time of food and fellowship!

Thank you also for your prayers this week as some of you were aware that I and my family fell sick. Praise God we are on the road to recovery! But, it’s been a rough week.

Well with that… let’s see how coherent my message is today! Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 11. Mark 11:22-33 today… finishing out chapter 11.

We are in the Passion Week of Jesus Christ… right after the Triumphal Entry… which falls on Palm Sunday.

Last week, we looked at the events on Monday of Passion Week…

Jesus cursed the fig tree which was symbolic for the nation of Israel and their lack of fruit.

Which was evident in the following scene when Jesus cleansed the temple.

The Temple should have been full of fruit of reaching the nations, BUT… INSTEAD… it had become corrupted…

… turned into a market where sacrificial animals were bought and sold… and currency was exchanged… all at exorbitant rates…

So… not surprising… Jesus for the second time drove out those who bought and sold…

He flipped the tables of the money changers… and the seats of those who sold doves…

Isaiah wrote the Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations, but they had turned it into a den of thieves…

And, we discussed the modern application for our lives… being that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (according to 1 Cor 6:19)…

If Jesus expected fruit back then… you better believe He expects us to bear fruit in our lives today as well…

Which is kind of sobering… it’s not just about what we GET… it’s also about what we GIVE… and the Lord hungers for fruit.

After Jesus cleansed the temple… He taught the people… preached the gospel… and healed the blind and the lame…

And, He did this for several days… which only further motivated the scribes and Chief priests to seek out how they might destroy Him…

At the end of that day, Jesus again departed Jerusalem and returned to Bethany… which was just two miles away… and where several of His friends lived.

We left off on Tuesday of the Passion Week… where Jesus and the Disciples were returning to Jerusalem… and passed by the fig tree which… miraculously was dried up from the roots…

Which sets up a teaching about faith, prayer and forgiveness… all needed lessons for the disciples as they were about to enter Jerusalem… and Jesus would be questioned about His authority by the religious leaders…

Which was a mountainous obstacle Jesus would overcome as He taught His disciples, “Have faith in God”… our sermon title for today.

Let’s Pray!

Please stand, in reverence for God’s word, as I read our passage for today…

Mark 11:22-33 “So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

27 Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. 28 And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?” 29 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.” 31 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. 33 So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Praise God for His word! Please be seated.

Again, the context of our teaching today is Jesus had been going from Bethany to Jerusalem and back over a couple days…

Encountering the people.... and religious leaders....and now they are heading back into Jerusalem where the religious leaders will challenge Jesus’ authority… and I think that’s very relevant to why Jesus will teach and prepare His disciples in our passage today.

Because they are about to walk into a lion’s den.

The day prior Jesus cursed the fig tree since He expected fruit, but it bore none.

He said, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”

Then, the next day… let’s back up and re-read vv 20-21, “Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”

So, Jesus responds by making statements about faith and prayer…

Which we are going to take bite by bite to try to understand what Jesus is driving at for His disciples… and in this context…

Jesus first responds to Peter by saying, in V22 “Have faith in God.”

Now… Jesus’ reply here feels a little out of place. One might expect a teaching about Israel and it’s lack of fruit… or the religious leaders and their outward appearance of holiness, but inside they were full of corruption.

But, that’s not how Jesus responds… He says, “Have faith in God.”

So, how does this statement connect to the fig tree?

As we read along, we’ll see that Jesus is connecting the necessity of faith in God in order to remove mountainous obstacles… which in the case of the fig tree was fruitlessness.

So the fig tree becomes an object lesson to “Have faith in God.”

If we fast forward to Jesus’ death, resurrection and then 40 days later to His ascension… right after that time we enter the Book of Acts…

… where the Disciples would would encounter the religious leaders and fruitlessness would abound.

The Sanhedrin… the chief council of Jews… would repeatedly arrest, imprison, and threaten the disciples to not preach in the name of Jesus…

Truly, they would need to have faith in God to press on.

We could apply this same principle to our lives… as we experience many temptations and distractions that would lure us away from the faith… many temptations to drift from God…

There is a culture that promotes and even celebrates the apostate Christian…

The world loves it when a Christian converts to the world and it’s system of lies.

How important is it for us to have faith in God… to continue to abide in Him… and not something else.

This statement, “Have faith in God.”… when you break it down grammatically reveals that Jesus is telling His disciples who their faith should be directed towards… and that who is God.

“Faith” is a noun…

And “God” is a noun, but also is in the genitive case… which indicates an attributive relationship between the two nouns… it shows possession.

So, when Jesus says “Have faith in God”…

He was telling His disciples that God must be the object of their faith.

According to Matt 21:20… the disciples were marveling over how quickly the fig tree withered away…

So, Jesus explained that this miracle was the result of a prayer… more like a proclamation made in faith in God.

Faith is a reliance and trust upon God.

And, if the disciples offered prayers reliant upon and trusting in God… God would hear and respond to their prayers as well.

And, let me reiterate… Jesus said “Have faith in God”…

Jesus did not say or imply “Have God’s faith”… which some erroneously teach.

That teaching implies the miracle occurs based upon our level of faith.

But, Jesus did not say have “faith in faith”… He said, “Have faith in God.”

It’s not about how much faith we muster up…

And, that’s good news, because some teach when you’re not healed or not prospering… it’s because of you’re lack of faith.

And, they use some of the following verses as a proof text.

Some take the following verses and apply them to health and wealth, and that’s not at all the context of this passage.

It’s important to establish this as we move along…

Please hear me in this… a warning… Be careful of teachers who use scripture as a proof text, but divorce the passage of it’s context.

It’s scriptural manipulation… used to manipulate people… and typically with the motivation of loosening their wallets… often in the name of faith in faith.

And, those teachers may sound convincing, but they don’t pass the scriptural sniff test.

Something about their doctrine stinks.

Because they are teaching people to have mis-placed faith. Having faith in faith… or feelings… or prosperity… and it’s wrong.

Jesus made one simple statement to the fig tree, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”

And, because of His faith in God… the miracle occured.

Then in v23, Jesus will use the image of moving a mountain… not literally, but Hebraic hyperbole… an exaggerated statement to make a point…

And, the point was to illustrate the power of faith in overcoming massive obstacles… mountainous obstacles…

Kind of like what they were walking into… heading into Jerusalem where they would encounter fruitless chief priests, scribes, and elders… a mountain of opposition…

They seemingly had all the religious authority… they had sway over the people… they had the Temple guard… they even would manipulate Pontius Pilate all in a weeks time… to crucify Jesus.

This teaching of Jesus’ to have “Faith in God” and what He says next in v23… makes perfect sense given the context.

Let’s re-read v23, “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”

Assuredly… meaning truly… Jesus now teaches a truthful teaching about how to overcome “mountainous problems.”

Please understand Jesus is using hyperbole here… He is not speaking literally… otherwise… why have we never seen or heard of a single instance ever in the history of mankind of someone who has cast a mountain into the sea?

And, if you look back on scripture, you will find that a mountain was used to illustrate insurmountable problems. (Isa 40:4, 41:15; Jer 51:25; Mic 1:4… and so forth)…

But, let me give you one from the Old and one from the New…

One of my favorite OT examples is when the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to rebuild the Temple… The Jews… and their Governor, Zerubbabel… faced many mountainous obstacles… mostly from opposing people of the land… and at times they were discouraged.

So God… through the Prophet Zechariah… a contemporary to Zerubbabel… spoke these words…

Zech 4:6-7 “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts. 7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!”

There was no literal mountain opposing Zerubbabel… and no mountain was literally leveled to become a plain. It was Hebraic hyperbole.

Anyone who had read Ezra and Nehemiah knows that mountainous oppositions to complete the Temple stood in their path, but the temple would be built, and the obstacles would be removed…not by human strength or power, but by the Holy Spirit.

And, don’t you just love Zech 4:6? ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.

That’s like a capstone verse for how Calvary Chapel churches function… our faith is not in our own might or power, but in the Holy Spirit… in God.

I don’t have faith in my ability to muster up a whole lot of anything… this church was not founded upon a demographic survey and wise study of the socio-economic climate of Warsaw…

This church was founded because as my wife and I were seeking God’s will and were willing to go wherever… we discovered three requests for a Calvary Chapel church plant… and the Lord stirred my and my wife’s heart.

And, then stirred the hearts of the Butcher’s…

The church was founded upon a move of the Spirit. Not by might or by power.

Here’s a NT example of a mountain used as hyperbole.

After Jesus came down off the Mount of Transfiguration… the disciples were disputing with scribes… and it was revealed they could not cast out a demon from a man’s son.

Which Jesus took care of by commanding the evil spirit out of the boy… and He emphasized the roll of belief… “all things are possible to him who believes.” Jesus said.

Afterwards, in Matt 17:19-20 we read, “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out? 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

The problem was their unbelief… they did not have faith in God in that moment…

They had already cast out demons prior when Jesus sent them out, so perhaps they had faith in themselves… but that’s not faith that moves mountains.

Jesus indicted the whole generation in that scene as “faithless and perverse.”

“Faithless” is unbelieving… and “perverse” is twisted, fig. to misinterpret.

And, the disciples had twisted and misplaced their faith…

And, that’s what many people still do today when they try to tackle mountains by their own strength.

Jesus mentioned a mountain moving to His disciples… but again, there was no literal mountain in that account. Again, hyperbole.

The demon was a mountain… perhaps even the opposition from the scribes…

But a little bit of faith placed in God through prayer… and not by their own strength (which it seems they were guilty of in that account)…

And, nothing would be impossible.

And, so as Jesus uses this illustration of a mountain here in Mark 11:23, He’s driving home a point… and preparing His disciples…

That big obstacles are ahead… but it’s their faith in God that will move the mountain.

Notice as well that Jesus addresses the importance of not allowing doubt to creep into one’s heart.

Jesus said that the person who commands the mountain to move and “does not doubt in his heart”… through their belief in God the mountain will be moved.

Doubt and faith when they coexist in the same heart… they work against one another… they kind of neutralize one another… and prayers lifted from that heart… and from that mind are ineffective.

James, in the context of trials, does a great job illustrating the conflict between faith and doubt in James 1:5-8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Double-minded means “of two minds” or “wavering”…

If you’re in a trial, and you’re struggling and need wisdom… come to God and ask Him in faith to give you wisdom in the trial.

But, you must trust the source. He is the God of the Universe… His arm is not short… nothing is beyond His reach.

And, so ask Him in faith, and trust that He will provide.

But, the person who doubts… this is displeasing to God because it demonstrates a lack of confidence in Him.

To ask God in faith, but then to doubt is double minded.

It’s interesting how the NLT translates some of these verses in James…

V6 “…be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea...

V8 “Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

And, I guess in many ways that’s that challenge… are we all in? Is our complete confidence in God?

Or, in doubt… do we look to the world… and the resources thereof?

And, so back in Mark… Jesus instructs the disciples that their faith in God has the power to move figurative mountains…

When doubt does not reign in the heart, but only faith in God Jesus said, “… those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”

Let’s put a pin in that proclamation… and read the summary verse…

V24 “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

So, back to back similar proclamations that a prayer in faith in God will result in God moving to answer the prayer.

Sadly, what some people do… is they take a verse like this and they think they have a blank check to write.

“God… I want to be more efficient in life and so in faith, bless me with a 2024 Chevy Corvette… 0-60 in 2.6 seconds…”

You want to know why God doesn’t answer that prayer?

It’s because God knows you won’t be able to afford the insurance on that vehicle.

That and these verses do not stand alone without a check elsewhere in scripture to balance them…

And, one of the best checks to balance what Jesus says here is found in James 4:1-3 “Where do wars and fights [or ‘quarrels and conflicts’] come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

How often do people get sucked into the snare of hedonism and materialism?

When pleasure and the thing of the world catch one’s eyes… and the heart pursues… James likens it to covetousness, war and murder…

Strong language to describe the tension and disputes that happen with other people… even family members…

One scholar wrote, “War is the fruit of illicit wants. Lust brings about murder. Covetousness results in the frustration of not obtaining the hotly pursued desires. It all leads to the “quarrels” and “fights,” that “battle” against people…”

When a person lifts up a selfish prayer… that is focused upon appealing their own fleshly desires, James says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss [you ask wrongly], that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

And with that… the motive of the prayer undergirded with selfish gain is exposed.

When Jesus said in Mark 11:24 “...whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

He is not talking about the corvette.

Wiersbe wrote, “Nor should we interpret Mark 11:24 to mean, ‘If you pray hard enough and really believe, God is obligated to answer your prayer no matter what you ask.’ That kind of faith is not faith in God; rather it is nothing but faith in faith, or faith in feelings.”

God answers the prayer of faith in Him… that is not shrouded in doubt or your pleasures…

But is in alignment with His will…

And that’s key… praying according to His will…

The Apostle John confirmed this… 1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

In other words, a believer can be confident that prayers in alignment with the will of God… are heard by God…

And we have insight into the will of God, by knowing the word of God…

In John 15:7, Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

If your prayer are in harmony with the word of God… good chance you are in alignment with the will of God…

And, then you can be confident your prayers will be those that honor and glorify God… and honor and glorify God’s will for our lives.

And, then you can expect your prayer of faith in God… asked with no doubting and no selfish pretense… but in God’s will…

That’s a prayer God hears and answers.

And, then Jesus continues on the topic of prayer… and letting His disciples know that a lack of faith in God is not the only obstacle to effective prayer… but also unforgiveness… bitterness in one’s heart…

Let’s re-read vv 25-26 in Mark 11 “And whenever you stand praying, [a common prayer posture amongst Jews] if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

If you want effective prayer in your life, it’s important… not only to have faith in God, but also to have a forgiving spirit toward others.

Holding grudges or bitterness towards others is not in the spirit of God.

Frankly, not forgiving is prideful and stubborn and of the flesh.

And, easier said then done… forgiving is not easy… We dig our heels in… think about the past… think about how we have been wronged… justify our position… and not one bit of that is of the spirit.

To illustrate how we should forgive biblically… turn over to Matt 18. In Matthew 18, Peter asks about forgiveness, and Jesus tells a parable to illustrate that forgiveness should be extended to others in direct proportion to the amount of forgiveness we have received…

Matt 18:21-35 “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” [which was generous and surpassed the Rabbinic teaching to forgive a brother only three times] 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. [not literally 490 times, but figurative for an unlimited amount of times] 23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. [equivalent to several million dollars] 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii [100 days wages for a laborer, so around $15,000 today… far less then the millions forgiven by the first servant]; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

If we do not forgive, we fall in the same error as the first servant. He received grace from his Master, and was forgiven a debt he could never repay, and therefore should have emulated the Master and extended the same grace and forgiveness to others.

If we do not… we are hypocrites… and our hard heart becomes yet another mountainous obstacle in our fellowship with God and our prayer life with Him…

We can never forgive others enough in this lifetime to come close to the eternal forgiveness we receive through faith in Jesus Christ.

There’s a quote from an unknown person… that reflects the forgiven debt bestowed upon us by Jesus… many of you have heard this before… it goes… “Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay.”

And, so back in Mark 11… for our prayers to be effective… and heard… and answered… we have to forgive others…

And, please understand, when Jesus said in V26 “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

This is NOT reflecting on God’s judicial forgiveness we received at our moment of conversion… when we first placed our faith in Jesus Christ and were justified… declared righteous before God…

That forgiveness is not earned by works… that is simply received as a gift by grace through faith.

What Jesus is referring to in V26 is how Father God deals with believers who hypocritically harbor bitterness and will not forgive others…

If you do not forgive, you hinder your prayers… you hinder your fellowship with God… and His blessings.

And, if you’re Bible omits V26 stating it’s not found in the best and most ancient texts… just flip over to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6… and just following you will find the same saying in Matthew 6:15,… it’s true… and it’s relevant to your prayer life.

Now… with all this… the Fig Tree withered… the Disciples marveled… and Jesus poured into and prepared His disciples to Have faith in God… and not to hinder their prayer life…

And, they would need this preparation because they were walking into adversity…

Like the unfruitful fig tree… as they passed the threshold into Jerusalem… unfruitful religious leaders come to confront Jesus…

A mountainous obstacle that would be cast aside through faith in God…

Let’s re-read vv 27-28 “Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. [Matthew and Luke wrote they confronted Him…] 28 And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”

“Well, hello to you too!” What a kind greeting!

Even worse, in Luke’s account… Jesus wasn’t just walking in the temple, but Luke 20 records that this confrontation occurred as Jesus, “… taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel…”

So, in the middle of His ministry… a whole group of Jewish religious leaders come… squinting their eyes… and pointing their crooked fingers at Jesus…

Confronting Him for doing these things… which probably looks back to the previous day when Jesus cleansed the temple… driving out the money changers… overturning their tables… flipping the chair of those who sold doves… stopping people from taking short cuts through the Temple…

Jesus stepped in and took over like it was His house…

Now… we know… and He knew that it was His house, but the Jewish leaders thought it was their house…

At least they were running it that way… turning it into a marketplace for profit…

They were so blinded by wealth, that they couldn’t recognize Jesus was Messiah… and had all authority over the Temple.

So, they ask Him… who gave YOU the authority… Gk exousia… often translated as “power”…

We might say, “Who gave you the right to do these things?”

This group of religious leaders were:

Chief Priests… who were in charge of temple worship in Jerusalem

Scribes… also known as lawyers, as they were experts in Jewish law

And, Elders… Jewish leaders who were guides in the traditions of Judaism.

Men who had positions of authority in Jerusalem… men who probably felt they could pull rank on Jesus…

Men who were blind to the reality that Jesus is God of the universe, and their creator…

“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11

It’s amazing that Jesus even engages them, but He does… He humbly stoops down not to answer straightforwardly with, “Well you see… I made this planet and breathed life into everything… so that gives me authority… plus my Father in heaven (who I am one with)… He gave me authority as well...”

That would have been too much… they never would have accepted the truth… and would have only tore their garments and maybe stoned Him on the spot… and then there would have been no cross… or fulfillment of Passover…

So, Jesus takes a different approach and… in very Jewish style… He answers a question with a question…

And, they always go for it. Why do they always go for it?

These moments remind me of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck going back and forth…

“It’s rabbit season… no duck season…” Remember that, and then Bugs always got Daffy confused to insist it was duck season and then Elmer Fudd shot Daffy duck.

I mean… it’s not a perfect fit… and NO… you’re Pastor’s not suggesting Bugs is Jesus… don’t take it too far…

But the religious leaders asked Jesus many questions… and Jesus always outsmarts them… typically by not answering… except to ask a question to their question.

In our culture, most of us would say, “I asked you first.”

But, they don’t… this cultural nuance… this line of questioning was normal in their culture.

So, vv 29-30, Jesus’ response, “But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”

As a reminder… way back in John chapter 1… Priest and Levites from Jerusalem… possibly some of the very same men in our scene today…

They investigated John the Baptist… they asked him, “Who are you?”…

John denied being the Christ…Elijah…or The Prophet. They persisted and asked, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

John replied “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,”…then they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

The Pharisees challenged John’s authority and credentials to baptize.

They challenged his entire ministry of being the forerunner to Jesus…

So, now… Jesus decides to take them back to John… asking if when he baptized people…

Did he have authority from heaven?

Or, authority from men?

Which is kind of the trap the religious leaders were trying to set for Jesus…

If Jesus said His authority was from heaven… which was true… they would accuse Him of blasphemy and stone Him.

If Jesus said from men… they would discredit His ministry as not from God… and they could charge Him for the Temple uproar.

But, Jesus did not fall for their trap… He flipped the script…

In this trial, He was granted wisdom because He had faith in God… with no doubting…

Remember, He already cursed the fruitless fig tree… He cast the mountain into the sea… these religious leaders and their snares were not too big an obstacle…

Jesus agrees to disclose His authority, but wants them to answer first if John’s authority was from heaven or from men…

And, now they find themselves ensnared…

Let’s re-read vv 31-33 “And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. 33 So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.”

Now this reminds me of a Three Stooges football episode… the stooges call “huddle” and scurry together…

Sorry for the old cartoon and comedy references… but this scene just takes my mind there…

They know they cannot say from heaven, because they already denied John’s authority to baptize… as we reviewed in John 1.

Jesus accused the whole generation of Jews in Matt 11:18 as denying John’s authority from heaven, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’”

If you say John has a demon, certainly you can’t say his authority was from heaven.

So, if they said ‘from heaven’ this would be a lie… and they didn’t want to get caught in a lie…

And, they anticipated Jesus would then ask them, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

And, if they said they believed John… this would validate His ministry… and his messages that Jesus is Messiah… John confessed…

“Make straight the way of the Lord!”

“the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The One “...whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”

“I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

So, they won’t acknowledge John’s baptism from heaven…

The other option was to say John’s baptism was not divine… that is was from men…

BUT, they feared the people who considered John as an authentic prophet.

Millions had gathered for Passover… and they feared stirring the people against them… for the people revered John.

Truly, the religious leaders did not believe John’s baptism was divine… they thought it as only a work of man… but they won’t be honest to say this.

So, the religious leaders do not lie and say they believe John’s baptism was from heaven… nor do they tell the truth to say they believe in was just a work of man, BUT they DO LIE and say, “We do not know.”

The truth is they were spiritually blind, and could not recognize John and Jesus’ ministries as divine…

They settled on a lie that John and Jesus were acting on their own accord.

But, instead of being honest, they lie, and say, “We do not know” out of fear.

And, in this they sin. At Passover, they sin. The leaders of the people better have had there atoning sacrifice ready because they needed it.

For, the bible is clear that lying is a sin.

Exo 20:16…the 9th Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Num 23:19 taught lying is against the nature of God… “God is not a man, that He should lie...”

Titus 1:2 also states “God…cannot lie”

Col 3:9 states, “Do not lie to each other, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.”

But, here… during this Holy feast week… the chief priests, scribes, and elders lie.

They looked good from the outside, just like the fig tree with all it’s leaves…

But upon closer inspection… they… like the fig tree… lacked fruit.

(Worship team you can come)

And, now that the Religious leaders have failed to respond… and have discredited themselves…

We close reading the end of V33 “And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Round 1… clearly goes to Jesus. Once again He silences the Religious Leaders… and by faith in God He overcomes this mountainous obstacle.

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, Says the LORD of hosts. ‘Who are you, O great mountain?”

Read ahead… I love what’s coming… Jesus already had defeated the religious leaders line of questioning, but then he directs three parables at them… brutal. I love it!

Let’s Pray!

Take away’s from today…

Have faith in God… not yourself… not faith in faith or faith in feelings…

But abide in Him and His word to know His will and pray accordingly.

And, don’t hinder your prayers through doubt… or unforgiveness…

Maybe today you take a first step of forgiveness, in your own heart by praying after service with someone today.

Don’t be shy. We’re family.

I pray you leave here today equipped for what the Lord has for you in the week ahead.

God bless you as you go!