The Authority Game
Notes
Transcript
Apparently to start a zoo you need two pandas, a grizzly and three polar bears… its the bear minimum
What do you call a nervous javelin thrower? Shakespeare
BEen around temple.. cursed the fig tree… all the way around the temple up to 24....
Today it starts with when he entered the temple… and this is a huge deal… he’s going against the religious powers of the time. Hes been saying crazy things religiously and philosophically and hes saying it in the worst or most signigicant place depending on how you want to look at it...
Its like hes going to the white house and saying this place is coming down...
Hes talking about the fig tree and then the temple because he wants to show that the same thing that happened to the fig tree is going to happen to the fig tree… and it happens 40 years later… and hes saying the time of religion is over...
The temple was about the presence of God on earth… and jesus says I am that presence… and the second thing the temple was the place that sins were forgiven sacrifice grain and doves and other stuff… and Jesus is saying I am the one who forgives sin now… shut it down…
IF you had to sacrifice stuff… it is all over… I am about to give it all away for you… and he is saying the temple isnt big enough for both of us…
You and I need god to show up and keep pushing us… Jesus keeps coming back to the same point because we’re dumb.... God says stuff to us and we are like no I am smartter than you… here is how to handle relationships and family and jobs… and we are like no… but he loves us so much that he keeps trying again and again and again… because he is good?
We tend to approach people in sin, one time and then leave it alone… because we dont want to absolve their rughteousness just our own guilt… and he keeps coming back and telling them what is better for them but he knows what is going to do.
You and I are blinded by our impulses and feelings....
Jesus shows up to these people...
23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
He is saying there is a new way… he isnt saying a boring way… he is saying this temple needs to be destroyed and there is a new way and you are scared but you have to move… he isnt trying to replace it with something boring.... but life to the full...
And they waited on him to come in on the donkey and lead the war…a nd hes teaching… so they want to know what authority he has… hes never went through the schools that the pharisees have… how is he saying this...
So they are expecting these things from him…and we cant believe they didnt accept Jesus and we laugh… but here is what is crazy… you and I are the same… we want to follow good looking people with power and influence....
And Isaiah tells us that there is nothing about Jesus physically that will make us go after him… and when we go after power and influence it should show us we may be just like one of the ones who rejected him… not like the beautiful pictures of him.... Jesus was a poor middle eastern jew.... probably more like osama bin laden than chuck norris… we are not praying to jim cavezal.... there was nothing about him worth following....
Here is what God does… he says the ugly people bring me glory… the poor will be rich… the beautiful will end up ugly and the ugly beauiful… God looks at the inside man at the outside...
JEsus comes from the dumb place to the intelligent place… and he shows up and they cant even begin to listen.... RT France talks about how people that were from where Jesus was from had an accent and they thought they were dumb
Thats why they reject him… thats why they dont listen… they cant believe he would have anything worthy to say.
Ken. Outside..
THere was nothing about Jesus that said he fits our criteria… and so they couldnt wrap their minds around it...
and so they ask by what authority...
and that is the question we ask… what authority does God have to tell me to do something… is there a god outside of us that we need to kneel to.
Freedom was like we have our own purpose outside of animals.... freedom is having a God over us that leads us.... but in post modern world we have changed that… we are allowed to do whatever we want and if you dont let me Im not free...
NEver has this been the question throughout history… and we know that we need to submit… and the bible gets to define what sexuality is… what our money does.... and you have to realize there is an authority that Jesus needs to take in your life....
Jesus will tell you there are times your freedom goes… and you may think that its not good for you in the immediate… and the Bible says no, God actually knows better than you
Training dog.. doesnt feel its good… no leave her there… she has to learn so it doesnt feel good but its the right thing....the restriction is for our good… and jesus says dont define freedom as the ultimate God in your life...
Tim Keller says… Imagine you are a 60 year old man… love eating whatever you want.... you can eat it… but the other thing you love is your grand kids.... doctor says if you want to spend more time with your grandkids you gotta change the way you eat to have that.... and you have to decide… and freedom is figuring out what the things are worth sacrificing for… and we wiull have to sacrifice… the question is is the sacrifice worth it.
24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
If he says Yes I am the messiah theyd just kill him… he says let me ask you a question
25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
Amd did you accept John… because if you did he says he cant untie my sandals
Sometimes the crowd is wrong…sometimes gaining power is going against the grain… how cowardly is it if we go with the crowd all the time...
26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’
29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.
30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go.
31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
You did not repent… lets do this… which brother are you
THe church is full of the second group… Yes GOd I will go do that.... but don’t Come to church tithe, but dont do the will of the father… they just believe but dont obey.... we are the wrong brother...
Then there is the other group… the messed up prostitute… I dont care about God… but then they do it
The church should be filled with messed up people…