Divine Authority

Did you ever watch Undercover Boss? It’s a TV show where a president or CEO goes undercover to be hired at an entry-level position in a franchise they own. They experience a workday with frontline staff. The staff has no idea that they’re training a VIP; they’re showing the ropes to their boss’s boss!

Something similar happens in the gospels. We get used to seeing Jesus as merely human: walking and talking with people, facing hostility from religious leaders, travelling with his disciples, and teaching in crowds. Even his talk about the kingdom of God doesn’t always remind us that he is God. We forget Jesus is the Lord God Almighty. Readers aren’t the only ones confused about who Jesus is. The chief priests, teachers of the law, and elders have no idea that Jesus is their boss’s boss!

Jesus’ hidden identity is central to the passage we read. He teaches daily in the temple. His presence irritates the religious leaders. But Jesus is popular with the people gathering in Jerusalem for the Passover. He heals people and teaches with authority about God’s law and life in God’s kingdom.

Jesus gives warnings about the judgement awaiting Jerusalem and the temple if God’s people don’t repent. Yet we’ve also seen people repent. Remember how the rich tax collector Zaccheus repented few days earlier down in Jericho (Lk 19).

This time through Luke’s gospel, I’ve noticed how Luke emphasizes that Jesus is God. We’re reminded of Jesus’ identity as Luke records the events he carefully researched, including these questions raised by the chief priests, teachers of the law, and elders. Their question comes just days after Jesus entered Jerusalem, accompanied by a crowd chanting from Psalm 118.

The timeline might be confusing. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. We’re planning a celebration to remember Jesus’ triumphant entry. Today’s passage happens a few days after Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Kids are still chanting from Ps 118:

Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

From the house of the Lord we bless you.

The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us.

With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession

up to the horns of the altar.

You are my God, and I will praise you;

you are my God, and I will exalt you. Psalm 118:25–28 (NIV)

All kinds of rumours and expectations are swirling in Jerusalem about Jesus being the Messiah, the son of King David.

The rumours sound dangerous to the religious leaders. They are the ones who studied the law with the best teachers. They make judgements about clean and unclean. They offer the sacrifices and bring home food from the offerings. The chief priests hold authority in the temple and power in government.

Jesus’ coming threatens their positions of power and their deal with the Roman Empire. So they band together and ask:

“Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” Luke 20:2 (NIV)

Jesus is a teacher. He often answers questions with a story, a parable, or a question of his own. This time, he asks question:

John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Luke 20:4 (NIV)

It puts the religious leaders in a quandary.

If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet. Luke 20:5–6 (NIV)

Jesus’ question is clever. He boxes in his opponents. After debating each answer, they say “We don’t know.” So Jesus refuses to tell them by what authority he is doing these things.

But Jesus’ question sounds like more than just a chess move to outplay the religious leaders in a war of words. Jesus showed how his mission and ministry aligned with John’s mission and ministry. Jesus hinted broadly that he had the same authority to call people to repent and to prepare for the kingdom of God that John had. If John is a prophet with authority from God, Jesus also comes from God.

Everything Luke records about John the Baptist and Jesus shows Jesus is more than a prophet. In Advent, in Dec., we read Luke, 1, 2, and 3. I went back and read Luke’s opening chapters for today’s sermon.

The angel of the Lord met Zechariah in the temple. Do you recall what the angel Gabriel told Zechariah about John?

He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:17 (NIV)

In the last chap. of OT, the prophet Malachi speaks about Elijah:

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lordcomes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction. Malachi 4:5–6 (NIV)

John’s job description comes from the OT prophet Isaiah. As he introduces John in ch. 3, Luke says that John is:

A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Luke 3:4 (NIV)

John’s job is to tell everyone, “Get ready! God is coming!”

The HS reveals to John’s mother Elizabeth what was going on. Do you remember how Elizabeth reacted when Jesus’ mother Mary came to visit and to help?

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?      Luke 1:41–43 (NIV)

Elizabeth’s words fit with what the angel of the Lord tells the shepherds as they’re keeping watch over their flocks at night:

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;

he is the Messiah, the Lord.Luke 2:11 (NIV)

We make a big deal each year during Advent and Christmas about how God has come into his own creation as a human baby to rescue and redeem the world. Jesus is that baby, Christ: the newborn king! Sometimes as we read further in the gospels, we forget that Jesus is Immanuel – God with us.

But Luke doesn’t forget. As you read Luke’s gospel, he draws out Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem from Luke 9-19. The gospel narrative is building to a climax. God has come to do big things among his people. Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem at the Passover is the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. Jesus warns of the dreadful day of judgement coming for those who refuse to repent. We’ll read from Lk 21 in the daily readings this week:

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:34–36 (NIV)

But Jesus’ coming is also the great Day of the Lord, when God redeems his people from sin and punishment and destruction.

In his parables and teaching, Jesus warned how people’s behaviour in the businesses and politics of this world are out of step with the ways of the kingdom of God. Jesus calls people to repent; to change their behaviour. Do you remember Jesus’ teaching about life in the kingdom of God in Lk 6?

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:27–31 (NIV)

The trouble is, that level of holiness and godliness are out of reach for people, ever since the fall into sin. All people – in Jesus’ day and today – are guilty of sin. We live under God’s judgement.

But Jesus is the Messiah, the Redeemer and Rescuer. On the great and wonderful Day of the Lord, Jesus came to bear the punishment for human sin. Jesus is 100% human and he can stand in our place. Jesus is 100% God and he can bear the punishment for our sin. He’s our Rescuer!

In less than 2 weeks, on Good Friday, we’ll read Luke’s description of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. It’s there, on the cross, on the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, that Jesus died the death we deserve so that in Jesus’ resurrection on 3rd day, we are raised to life with Jesus.

Eternal life with Jesus: it’s the comfort that we enjoy in life and in the face of death. Our life in Christ gives us deep assurance when we face major surgery or survive a terrifying accident. It’s the kind of stuff we talk about when we visit someone in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit or when we gather with family in a Funeral Home.

Life with Jesus is a comforting thing as you hold a newborn infant in your arms. You know the uncertainty of life in a sin-troubled world, but the children of believers enjoy the comfort and joy of God’s blessings and promises in Jesus the Messiah.

By faith in Jesus, we and our children receive all the benefits of Jesus’ suffering and death on our behalf. Because God came to rescue us, we’re forgiven and made alive – more alive than we’ve ever been before!

In response, we’re called to live as citizens of the kingdom of God. We’re called to repent of our sin, turn away from wrongdoing, and imitate Jesus’ compassion, generosity, and love for all the people around us.

Our job as citizens and ambassadors of his kingdom is to rejoice and celebrate God’s love for his world. We get to proclaim: God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son.

Good Friday and Easter are a great time to do that. Statutory holidays are on every calendar and every work schedule.

Good Friday gives you an opportunity to explain the significance Good Friday holds for you. Why is it so good?

Easter weekend gives you the opportunity to describe the joy and purpose in life you get from celebrating that Jesus rose from the grave one morning roughly 2000 years ago.

It’s a great opportunity to invite family or friends to join you in coming to worship here at Crosspoint in 2 weeks when we celebrate Good Friday and Easter.

I probably don’t need to say it: nagging and guilt are not helpful motivation. Be tactful, kind, generous when you invite people.

In response to today’s sermon, in celebration that Jesus is God himself coming to rescue his people, we’re going to sing an unexpected song. We usually sing this song at Christmas, but you’ll notice that the words are not just about Christmas . It’s a celebration that the Lord has come! Jesus is king! It’s an invitation for all people to rejoice: God has come!

Joy to the world: the Lord has come ...