Christ's Authority

Good morning, welcome to NHCC. Please open your Bibles to Mark 11.

Dismiss Bright Lights- 3rd Grade and younger.

Read Mark 11:27-33- And 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 they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Pray.

2 things that have happened in the past week:

Conversation with Ali about mid-life crises.

Watching the music video for Johnny Cash’s Hurt.

What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end. And you could have it all, my empire of dirt.

We ought to often take an account of our lives, how have we lived up to this point? The question should always be- What difference has Jesus made in my life? What have I made of Jesus?

We find this morning that it is possible to “play with Jesus”. To have an interest in Him without taking Him seriously. This is the offense of the Pharisees, and one that we must guard against.

To see this laid out plainly, let’s separate our text into three main sections, which will be the points in our outline.

1. A question of authority.

Our account begins with Jesus in the temple and an approach from the religious leaders.

It is important that we remember the context here. We are currently reading about the events that were happening on Tuesday of holy week.

Our text makes it clear that they are returning to the temple, and this is a mere day after Jesus has cleared it. He has turned over tables, scattered the buyers and sellers, and has stopped people from carrying any merchandise through the court of the Gentiles.

Likely, things had already returned back to somewhat normal. Buyers and sellers were likely back, but perhaps being a bit more respectful of the worshiping Gentiles.

So when Jesus returns to the temple, and the religious leaders approach Him, what is fresh on their minds is His activity from the day before- the clearing of the temple.

When they come to Jesus and ask Him a question, there are a couple of things that we need to remember concerning these religious leaders. We must keep in mind that they are conniving, that the temple is the place where they hold authority, and that they have no desire whatsoever to learn from Jesus.

First, they are conniving. And this isn’t meant as some sort of insult, they are literally conniving.

Remember the small detail given by Mark in last week’s text- Mark 11:18- And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

They have always been looking for ways to trip up Jesus, to make His stumble in an admission, to make Him look bad in the eyes of the people around Him.

But now we find that they are set on His destruction. This reminds us that they don’t care to hear any of His answers, or to be changed by them. Their desire is for His silence, and ultimately for His death.

Also, remember that the temple is their turf. When Jesus comes into the temple and calling the Jews out on their treatment of the gentiles and the hypocrisy behind their religious activities, He is ultimately laying the blame at their feet. The Jewish people reflect the leadership that is ever before them, and so Jesus’ condemnation of the temple practices is a condemnation of the Jewish religious leaders.

Thus, when they ask about authority, the question is coming from a place of offense. Jesus is acting without THEIR authority. In the temple, which is where their authority is most important.

All of this to say that the religious leaders are coming at Jesus with ill-intent, offended by His practices and ready to do anything to silence Him.

When we understand where the religious leaders are coming from, their questions begin to make more sense. On whose authority are you doing these things? Or maybe stated even better, who has given you this authority?

Notice the content and the purpose of their questions.

When it comes to content, it is interesting what they do not seek. They have no desire to inquire whether Jesus is or is not truly the Son of God, the Messiah, God Himself.

They are not seeking the truthfulness of His words or His actions. They’ll skip directly over His statements that apply OT truths to current day realities, never stopping to question whether they should feel conviction. Instead, they’ll move on to something entirely different.

Who has given you the authority to do these things? Notice the purpose of their asking.

If Jesus cannot answer this question in an entirely appropriate way, He will likely lose followers. And this is what the religious leaders are hoping for.

Before they can seek to destroy Him, the religious leaders must chip away at His support.

Think of our political system today. Many do not immediately seek to destroy someone (though perhaps we are moving in that direction). Instead, we highlight various poor decisions to begin chipping away at support. He voted this way on this bill, she said this in this interview. And we hope that by way of enough examples, we will get to the destruction, or dismissal of a person.

In the same way, the religious leaders are not coming right out and claiming Jesus to be a fraud, but are instead beginning to try to introduce doubt.

And this makes sense. This is perhaps the peak of Jesus’ popularity, following the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Before they can destroy Jesus, they will need to turn people against Him.

Before we move on, take a moment to recognize what is happening here, because it will reveal to us the nature of some folks that we know.

It is possible to be interested in Jesus while not being seriously interested in Jesus.

The Pharisees show us the heart that rejects Jesus, even while faking an interest in Him.

These will be many folks that we run into still today. Their minds seem inquisitive, yet with a bit of digging, there is no real pursuit. They ask a question, are unchanged by the answer and walk away.

Once again, we are reminded of the difference between such a person and a disciple, the one who truly shows interest, who asks the question and seeks the answer.

Disciples of Jesus find themselves challenged and changed by the words of Jesus, shaped by that which He reveals of Himself. The religious leaders have no interest in this.

All of this leads to the answer that Jesus gives.

2. John and Jesus.

Rather than giving a straight answer, Jesus asks a question.

This is not uncommon in Jewish culture. Often, this would be the start of rabbinical debate. It’s a style of argument that digs deeper. I ask a question, then in order to lay the framework for an answer, you might ask another question.

Example- What do you think about the sovereignty of God? Before stating what Scripture says, I might ask, “Well, what do you believe about the authority of Scripture?”

So rather than answering right away, Jesus seeks to see what theological framework the religious leaders are working from, even though He already knows the answer.

He draws the attention of the religious leaders and the temple crowds to the person and work of John the Baptist.

Jesus asks if John’s work in baptizing had any spiritual significance, or if it was just something that was of human origin, or simply made up by John.

The trap has been set. The Pharisees have no way to answer the question. Let’s work through their possible responses.

First, they could say that the work of John was of spiritual significance, which is was.

This is the correct answer, but there is no way that they could have admitted it, and they likely did not believe it anyways.

If they said that John’s work was from God, or on God’s authority, then it would mean that John’s message was rooted in God’s authority.

And remember what we learned about John, all the way back at the beginning of Mark. His ministry was all about Jesus, and nothing else.

His birth announcement focused on the coming of Jesus, he leapt in the womb when he was near Jesus before either had been born, he preached concerning Jesus and His coming Kingdom, and he baptized in order to show a need for Jesus.

John was the forerunner to Jesus, the herald for Jesus.

So the religious leaders were unable to say that John’s message was from God, or his baptisms were from God, because all John did in his preaching and baptizing was proclaimed what Jesus said of Himself.

To validate the claims of John the Baptist would validate the claims of Jesus.

And it’s not like they could even say that part of his message was given by God, because ALL of John’s message was Jesus.

So, they were unable to say that the work of John the Baptist was authorized by God.

So, the other obvious answer would be to say that it wasn’t from God, but this also posed significant challenges.

Among the Jews, John the Baptist was really popular, even after his death.

Remember, when Herod had John put to death, even he was sorrowful over it.

The people saw John as a prophet, and so anything that the religious leaders would say to cast doubt on that would bring anger.

In fact, in Luke’s account, the religious leaders are fearful for their lives if they say that John was not from God, thinking that the crowd might stone them.

This answer is clearly not a winner for the religious leaders.

But let’s notice something else that is in play here.

Jesus speaks in the gospels about the fear of men. Stated plainly, he says that our fear should not be of men who truly have no significant power over us, but instead in God.

The religious leaders here prove that they have a greater fear of man than they do of God. They avoid giving an answer due to their fear of men. And they simultaneously avoid giving the correct answer due to a lack of fear of God.

If they feared God, they would have said that John’s work was of God. If they didn’t fear men, they would have said (falsely) that John was not from God.

In stating neither, they prove their fear of men and their lacking a fear of God.

And this is their answer: We don’t know. It’s not honest, it’s not truthful, but it’s the answer that they choose. And because they have avoided an answer, so will Jesus, bringing us to point 3.

3. Avoiding an answer.

Jesus says that He will not answer their question on authority precisely because they would not honestly engage with Him.

In some ways, Jesus is communicating that their interaction here is not worthy of an answer.

Remember the parable of the soils? Their heart is the rocky soil. Any answer that Jesus might give would be immediately rejected by these religious leaders.

And please understand. It is worth noting that it’s not that Jesus has some personal vendetta against all of the religious leaders. It’s easy to think that sometimes. We get it stuck in our minds that He can be pretty rude to them just because they are the teachers of the day.

But Jesus engages Nicodemus in John 3. He walks through the idea of rebirth and new, eternal life patiently with a man who has come to hear from Him.

So it’s not their title that Jesus doesn’t particularly like, it’s their hearts. Nicodemus came to Jesus, searched for truth with Jesus. Not so with these religious leaders. They were bad soil.

And Jesus recognized the soil and responded accordingly. It wasn’t worth having the conversation.

I think there might be a thing or two to learn from Jesus here.

If I’m honest, everything about this encounter with Jesus reminds me of a debate taking place on social media.

Think about how these tend to go- someone says something provocative, meant to draw out a response. They have little interest in engaging in any sort of meaningful conversation, but instead simply have their own agenda for saying what they did. They want their voice to be heard, not challenged.

This was the attitude of the religious leaders.

Jesus saw this, said his piece, and walked away.

Maybe we Christians need to understand that there are times to walk away, following the example of Jesus, who saw that nothing meaningful could come from any further engagement.

John Calvin says the following of those who share an attitude with the religious leaders- “They do not inquire what is true, nor do they put the question to their own conscience; and they are so base as to choose rather to shuffle than to acknowledge what they know to be true, that their tyranny may not be impaired. In this manner, all wicked men, though they pretend to be desirous of learning, shut the gate of truth, if they feel it to be opposed to their wicked desires.”

So what does Jesus do, and what might we consider doing? He challenged the thought by presenting truth, and then walked away. He didn’t take it further than it needed to go because there was no point in taking it there.

We need to be able to read the intentions of others. Are they open to discussion or are they simply looking to make a point?

There are so many who have zero desire to learn anything, but instead simply to make their voice heard.

Jesus walks away, having presented the truth and challenged their line of thinking. He needs no further engagement, and so he avoids any further answers.

How might we walk away from this text? How might we be challenged in conclusion?

The religious leaders give me pause. They have seen Jesus, they know Jesus, they are aware of His teaching, they are aware of His actions, and yet they have no desire to go deeper.

There are likely some present here today, or online, who have taken this same approach with Jesus. We know of Him, yet we know Him not.

We refuse to be taken any deeper into relationship with Him, and so we no longer engage with Him in any meaningful way.

We have no desire to be shaped by what He says or does, we have no desire for true obedience to Him.

Stated differently, we play with Jesus, just like the religious leaders. The question for anyone who does this is: for how long?

How long will we play with Jesus, having a passing interest in Him but not giving ourselves completely to Him?

The two things mentioned earlier in this sermon come into play here. At some point, we will look back and take an account of our lives. Will they have been devoted to Jesus Christ, or not?

What needs to happen right now, in this moment, in order for your life to no longer be wasted on that which is unimportant in the grand scheme of things?

What will you do with Jesus? What difference will He make in your life?

Let’s pray.