Mark 11:25-12:12 - Fruitful Authority

Today, Jesus picks up where He left off with these Jewish leaders, and as we’ll see, He instigates the indignation needed for these leaders to take action against Him.This action will, in several days, result in His suffering and death and ultimately His resurrection, which we celebrate today.Before we get started, let’s remember that Jesus came in the full authority of God the Father, and He exercised His authority by going to the cross for sinners like us.But as we can see through the last several chapters, pride in the heart of man rejects this authority.And this pride becomes the very path to hypocrisy and lack of fruit, as we have seen from the Jewish leaders.The path to bear fruit, however, is full surrender, attachment, and dependence on the life of the tree, which is Christ.And as we will see today, the people of God are called to bear fruit and render it to God.Are you bearing fruit?One day, He will return to gather the harvest.And the only way we can bear fruit for His Kingdom ahead of His return is by fully surrendering to the authority He rightfully has.Mark’s aim this morning to His audience is to show that Christ came in full authority to suffer and die for the sake of His rightful fruit, which are those whom He has called unto Himself.And while the Jewish leaders thought they were removing authority from Him by getting rid of Him, He was actually stepping into His rightful place of authority through this very process.