Turn with me to Matthew chapter 21 verses 23 through 27 this morning in our passage Working through Matthew we arrive at a confrontational encounter between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day The subject matter is the issue of authority by what authority does Jesus do what he's doing and by what authority does he teach what he's teaching? And by way of implication why then would anybody believe in him listen to him or marvel at him? So this morning we're invited to think about Jesus's authority the response of the religious leaders to him and our own Response to his authority. Let me invite you to consider God's holy and inspired word for Matthew chapter 21 beginning at verse 23 And when he pardon me beginning Matthew chapter 21.
Yes verse 23 And when he entered the temple the chief priests of 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? 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 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? But if we say from man we are afraid of the crowd for they all hold that Jesus was a prophet So they answered Jesus we do not know I tell you by what authority I do these things Amen, this is God's holy and inspired word.
May he write it on our hearts. Let's look to him in prayer Our father lift Jesus before our eyes this day by the work of the Spirit give us eyes to see him and and hearts to believe in him And we pray that he would be honored and we would be helped in Jesus name. We pray amen Well the chief priests and the elders have a measure of religious authority and they don't want Jesus infringing on their territory What they don't yet realize is that they have met their match and he's about to expose them I kind of like I suppose in a different way Christian herder when he was governor of Massachusetts running hard for a second term in office One day after a busy morning of campaigning again and not having lunch He arrived at a church barbecue in the late afternoon and he was simply famished and moving down the chow line He held out his plate to the woman serving chicken She put a piece on his plate and turn to the next person in line Excuse me governor her said do you mind if I have another piece of chicken? Sorry the woman told him I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to one person, but I'm starved the governor said sorry the woman said only one to a customer Well the governor who didn't usually decided he would throw his weight around a little bit and said do you know who I am?
I'm the governor of this state Do you know who I am the woman said I'm the lady in charge of the chicken move along mister? Well, that was the attitude here. They were throwing their weight around Do you know really what they were saying in part was do you know who we are? Well, then you'll tell us who you are just who do you think you are anyway?
And what Jesus tells them suddenly through this exchanges? I'm the one in charge of religion not you and the flow of the confrontation is very straightforward They asked Jesus a question about his authority He responded in a very rabbinic way with a question for them which wouldn't have been unusual and they give an answer that exposes though Their rejection of him and in return Jesus rejects them There are many lessons to be learned from this story, but let's highlight at least three First lesson never be surprised by religious adversaries to the authority of Jesus. That's a verse 23 Second lesson Jesus always out smarts and exposes the hearts of his adversaries That's in verses 24 to 26 and thirdly Jesus will reject his adversaries who are persistent in rejecting him That's in the last verse. Let's think about those three lessons for a moment this morning first never be surprised by religious adversaries to the authority of Jesus verse 23 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 now on the one hand It seems like a very reasonable question.
He's done so many amazing things On the other hand, it's a selfish question because we know they aren't celebrating the things he's done They feel threatened by him their attitude is more don't you know who we are instead of we're so glad you're Among Us Now who are they that they have such an inflated view of themselves? Well, Matthew tells us they're the chief priests and the elders the chief priests Well, these are the various chief priests of Israel who have served out their term as chief priests retired from the work of offering sacrifices at the temple But hung around their junior colleagues making sure things went smoothly keeping up with the ecclesiastical gossip and so forth that usually They were members of the theologically liberal camp called the Sadducees and some of them served on the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin They were often rich and politically influential and they sort of had the highest rank among the leaders of religion in their day But the other group the elders here are the elders of the people these were mature men Oftentimes members of the more theologically conservative camp called the Pharisees who sometimes ruled in the synagogues and some served as well on the Sanhedrin the ruling council And they were often more middle-class and they were often more respected by the people and they had their power from the support of the people And usually these elders and the chief priests were enemies toward each other because of their theological disagreements But you for the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend and since they hated Jesus most of all They made common cause against him as is so often the case in our own day when those who refused to follow Jesus Fall in together and walk together in rebellion against Jesus Well just as misery loves company so rebellion against Jesus loves company So here you've got the chief priests and the elders and they're wanting to throw their ecclesiastical weight around their attitudes What gives you the right? You're not from the right family. You're not from the right theological camp You didn't go to the right schools.
You didn't get credentialed by the Jerusalem big wigs We don't recognize your authority around here And here you are in the temple on the one hand cleansing it and driving everybody out on the other hand you've come back the next Day to teach together a crowd Now before we make a misstep and imagine that the question itself on its face is improper Just remember that the question of authority itself is proper They were tasked we have to remember as religious leaders to teach the people and to protect and defend the people from heretics Their problem is not that they had no right to inquire their problem is their attitude They're inquiring not to get a straight answer But to try to tear Jesus down in front of the audience to put him in his place To expose him they think as an imposter who doesn't have the right to be teaching the people in the temple court So the issue of authority. Let's just be clear on this is actually important Who has authority from God in ministry among God's people? Yet of course put that way it tends to rub a lot of people the wrong way in our generation It's it's commonly said to people especially the young that you could do whatever you want in life You could be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do and that everybody's equal and everybody's the same and it's simply a matter Your choice you pick and yet our culture actually doesn't operate that way I mean business is certainly don't operate that way You are expected to do what you're hired for and certainly not you serve the authority of your boss or your company president or its owner Right, I mean if you're a bank teller, you're expected to stay in your lane and help clients with deposits and withdrawals You can't stand in the bank vault handing out the wads of cash to your friends calling it, you know, no interest loans for cars You don't have authorization. You don't have authority for that Well, and you probably don't have the skills to make the bank money by doing that or your skills have been undiscovered And and that's why you're a bank teller and not a loan officer But even if you do acquire the skills and many move up and acquire the knowledge and the wisdom to become a loan officer It's it's not like you can be a loan officer at Centennial Bank and start underwriting loans with Bank of Ozarks money All right, you still even if you've got the skill You don't have the authority because it's not your bank and so we expect people to sort of say in their lane Do what they're qualified to do and what they're authorized to do you?
I mean we expect that in families too, right? I mean you don't want the neighbor barging in your door at nine o'clock at night telling your kids It's time to go to bed get your pajamas on brush your teeth and get you know, get turned the lights out I mean well that would be bizarre, right? Kids already have a hard enough time when it's their own parents who have authority over them telling them and now it's time to say good night You know, but we don't expect others to usurp authority in that way Well as in our homes and as in our businesses we could add in our schools or sports teams or physicians offices Hospitals right sort of so also in the church and matters of religion who has the qualifications the skill the right the authority to act on behalf of God Now this already makes people comfortable. I understand people will say religion is a private thing.
It's a personal thing It's just a relationship between you and God however you would conceive it to be What do you mean by church authorities acting on gods by half in ways not open or able for everyone? And I suppose we sometimes think that way perhaps because we've been around terrible selfish damaging church authorities Maybe we've been burnt by them and we don't want any more of that or we think this way because we've embraced the spirit of the age with its hyper individualism We don't think community matters about spiritual matters or we don't think we need the community for much of our spirituality But the Bible is a very different idea about religious authority as you may recall in the Old Testament for instance Only the Levites could be priests So all priests were Levites But all then but but even then not all Levites were priests all priests were Levites But not all Levites were priests only from the family lineage of Aaron and that actually was good for the community When the Levites acted responsibly it did what they were authorized to do including The silitating worship and serving as musicians and gatekeepers and temple officials and assistance to the priests And this was also good for the community It would have been good for you when the priests acted responsibly and did as they were authorized to do and taught the people and prayed with and for the people and offered the sacrifices of atonement and the sacrifices for the people's guilt and the people's sins and then reassured them of their Acceptance with God and even offered the sacrifices that celebrated the peace they had with God so they can have a party and a feast in the temple Rejoicing in friendship and fellowship with God all these were good things as God appointed them and As the Levites and the priests were faithful in carrying out their duties But what if your priest was a selfish jerk never prayed for you didn't care to teach you God's word and every time you came to the temple He disrespected God with his laziness and his insubordination against the commandments of God and and and how grievous would that be to you if you were a sincere God worship her how discouraging or how distracting or how damaging to your ability to enjoy the blessings of God for you And so the question of who is the right to serve God among his people in places of authority and responsibility and to act on his behalf to speak in his name Is no small issue and it was a massive issue in Jesus day precisely because the priests were corrupt and they turned the temple into a Den of robbers instead of a house of prayer And it was a massive day because a long-king Jesus not from the line of Aaron the priestly line Yet acting like a priest cleansing the temple driving out the riffraff the money grubbers and here he is teaching the people And of course he was also acting like the Messiah entering Jerusalem on the call to the donkey receiving shouts of huzana to the son of David the king of Israel accepting to their acclamation as their king and what gave him the right these folks are thinking to do that and To encourage the children to join in the praise of him. Just who do you think you are Jesus? What school did you train in to teach God's words so authoritative Lee by what authority do you take up?
the kingship or the priesthood and Those questions press us does Jesus have authority from God to teach you to be to you a prophet from God Does Jesus really have authority from God to be your king and call you into service and obedience? Does he have authority to be your priest the one through whom you come safely into the presence of God? So what I'm saying is it wasn't entirely improper for these priests and elders to make an inquiry in a way They would have been derelict in their duty if they didn't protect the people if they didn't make inquiries yet the question They are asking him the question they are asking him has actually already been plainly answered Jesus by his own words by his own teaching by his claims by his miracles by his life has made it abundantly clear the source of his authority And furthermore God had witnessed about his own son at the baptism of John the Baptist when God spoke This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased and that voice of God the Father spoke of the amount of Transfiguration this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased listen to him And so the authority of Jesus comes from God and that was plainly clear and yet the religious leaders didn't merely question his authority They actually rejected it They were teachers and leaders in Israel religious teachers and religious leaders and that and yet they rejected God's witness to his own son They rejected the scriptures that Jesus fulfilled They rejected the testimony of John the Baptist about God's son and they didn't want the people trusting in and following God's son So it's a simple point but never be surprised when you encounter religious teachers and leaders in any community Who are actually adversaries to the authority of Jesus in your life? But second lesson is Jesus always out smarts and exposes the hearts of his adversaries When he confronts them first 24 Jesus answer them I also will ask you one question and if you tell me the answer then I also will tell you by one authority I do these things that's reasonable you've asked me a question.
I'll ask you a question You want to know about my authority? Why don't you tell me a little bit about your understanding of the authority of John the Baptist the baptism of John verse 25 from where did it come? from heaven or from man now this of course was a brilliant reply and For a variety of reasons and from one thing John's ministry was much like the ministry of Jesus Neither of them had studied in the rabbinic schools neither had been endorsed by the religious authorities yet both had been accepted by the people And for another John had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and yet in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies like Isaiah 40 He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord and what did this voice of the wilderness? Eating wild honey and grasshoppers.
What did he say about Jesus? He said I baptize you He said to the people I baptize you with water for repentance But he who is coming after me is mightier than I who sandals I am not worthy to carry He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire And he said of Jesus behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world that was the testimony of John about Jesus So do you see how Jesus has trapped them in a kind of dilemma? If they admit John was really from God then what gave them the right to reject his testimony about Jesus But if they say that John is not from God Well, then they knew that the crowds would be hostile to them in fact Luke tells us in Luke 20 verse 6 They feared all the people will stone them to death For they are convinced John is a prophet You got a big crowd and you rile him up and tell him the guy you think is a prophet from God. He is it?
They worried that they would be sown for blasphemy now look in Jesus asking them this question about what do they think about John the Baptist? It might seem like he's evading their question with a bit of misdirection But actually he's not evading their question It was an inspection and an exposure of the wickedness of their own hearts and their own thoughts about him And he's exposing their moral bankruptcy even as he's actually giving them the answer to their question They were asking Well, here's some of their moral bankruptcy. They were asking by what authority Jesus did what he did and in doing so They're asserting their ability and authority to judge him in his case But then they were forced to confess their inability to make a judgment in the case of John the Baptist and therefore in the case of Jesus as well But they knew their own minds of course And they even held an unholy huddle and kicked it around and then agreed together Well, you know if we say John's from heaven, Jesus is gonna turn right around and say well, why don't you believe him? About him But if we say John wasn't from heaven, he's just from man.
Well Their coward is kicked in and so instead of that they declared, you know, we just don't know You know, really? We don't know what to think about all this Jesus But they really thought Jesus wasn't from God. They didn't want Jesus to rule over them They didn't want to submit to his authority and they didn't think they ought to And of course, Jesus here isn't misdirecting them He's actually telling them plainly that he is from God if only they have ears to listen to John So that the answer to their question is found in their answer to his question And if they just answer his question properly, they would have the answer to their question. So Jesus is exposing Their hearts He's exposing their unbelief for instance by their own admission.
They didn't believe John In their eyes, John was self-authorized his authority to them was merely human and private not sanctioned by the Jerusalem priesthood so If they gave a safe answer that John was from God even though they didn't believe it Then Jesus would nail them for their unbelief And Jesus also exposes their self-centered cowardice. They fear the crowd So they won't say what they really think as an act of self-protection They don't have the courage of their convictions And so Jesus also exposes their hostility Why is all this happening? Well, it's because they hate Jesus They're hostile to him just as they were hostile to John So he exposes them as faithless and gutless and loveless You can see why this only riled them up all the more But they won't bend the knee to Jesus supreme authority and their problem ultimately wasn't intellectual It was moral they suppress the truth in unrighteousness and Jesus exposes them Just as our response to Jesus exposes us Hey in a sermon on confrontation where Jesus is in confrontation with the religious authorities Don't be surprised if the sermon sounds a little confrontational to you Your response to Jesus exposes your heart. It's actually a kind of diagnostic test of your spiritual condition It's an indicator of where your heart is with God If you won't affirm the lordship of Jesus and live under his authority It's not because you have merely intellectual objections And listen you may have some let's work through this let's talk about this But it's not because you have merely intellectual objections to the authority of Jesus Well, we fall in humans have by nature moral objections to the right of Jesus to be our king and to command us So when we ask You know, what do you say about Jesus?
Who do you say he is? And we ask is he your Messiah and your Savior and your lord your prophet your priest your king We're not asking a question merely about your intellectual assertions Or a question with merely intellectual implications We're really asking about the state of your heart towards God And if we're opposed to the authority of Jesus in our lives Then we're really taking our stand with the chief priests and the elders who crucified him And we're saying I will stand with them Against you Jesus and that's really not a place where you and I want to be standing At the cross It's not not the side of the conflict we want to be on And that is that is because of one final thing we see in this passage And it's in verse 27. Jesus will reject his adversaries who are persistent in rejecting him Notice this in verse 27. They say to Jesus, we do not know And he said to them neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things They refused to answer the question honestly Jesus refuses to give them any more information explicitly And it's a warning to us To not reject the truth that we have been given And then somehow expect more truth to be given to us We've been given what we need through the scriptures Through the fulfilled prophecies through the testimony of john the baptist Through the voice of the father of out his own son Even through the acclimation of the children who shout into zana to the son of david We've been given through the examples of his miracles his healing of the lame is giving sight to the blind Feeding of the five thousand his walking on the water And of course most importantly his resurrection from the dead We've been given what we need By jesus as well Skillfully unmasking the duplicity of his detractors And what we are to do with what we've been given Is to believe in jesus Perest our souls on him for our salvation and to receive him as our savior and our lord But not to act like god has been unclear his word is insufficient and somehow he owes us more Even while we say no to what he's already given So jesus simply leaves them with what he said And I think it's true that god will often press upon us the truth that he's already told us and not give us more If we won't use the truth we've been given and God will judge us for the truth that we have And have rejected He will hold us accountable If we persist in rejecting his son and his authority Why would he would we go on resisting him?
Why would you go on resisting him? We don't don't you realize of course that the one with all authority in heaven and on earth Which is what jesus said right before his ascension to heaven All authority and heaven on earth has been given to me That he's the one who uses his authority in the most humble And generous of ways You know one of the big questions of life is how do we use the authority we've been given How do we bear it responsibly and not selfishly How do we exercise authority without being domineering? Maybe you're a husband, maybe you're a father or a mother of children Maybe you're a boss at work Maybe you've been tasked with something by those above you to do a job You know, how do you use the authority you've been given in ways that are responsible And good and for God's glory and the well-being of others and not merely for your own selfish self-interest And if you've had real authority in life, you know the temptation to use it selfishly And you probably have You can probably think of occasions where that's exactly what you've done But what does jesus do with his authority? He takes all the authority that God has given him as the king of kings and lord of lords And he does what he gives himself into the very hands of his adversaries And he lays down his life upon a cross and he says upon the cross father forgive them For they don't know what they're doing And the life that he gives in death Brings forgiveness to all who trust in him.
Won't you? Let's pray Father, thank you for the gift of your son and jesus we praise you that you had authority to lay down your life An authority to raise it back up and nobody could take it from you, but you gave yourself willingly Because you love your bride And gave yourself yourself for her to present your bride faultless in glory And so help us then grant to us a soft and not a hard heart And grant us then to sit willingly at your feet in jesus name. I pray. Amen.
Amen. Let's stand together and sing