Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign
[00:00:04] Speaker B: welcome to Hope for Today, a weekly Bible teaching program that will bring you hope for every day.
It is good to be with you today as we study God's word and learn from it. Thank you for being there. While Jesus was here, his harshest words were for the religious leaders.
Time after time they rejected him and tried to minimize his miracles. Jesus was a threat to their false religion and they decided he must be eliminated. We know they succeeded in killing him, but there was no possible way he could be stopped. He is the one who holds all power and absolute authority.
Today we look at the conversation where they question his authority. Jesus sees through their questions and responds with a question.
It is a very interesting conversation.
If you can turn to Mark 11 and Pastor J. Mark will guide us as we look at Jesus response to their questions.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and here in the US those were years of significant change.
The focus during that time wasn't so much on what was right or what benefited the other people in society.
The focus was on the individual. What do I want and how can I get it?
We m called it the me Generation.
This attitude led to the rejection of authority, and that was all authority, whether it was civil or social or religious. Nothing was sacred. Nothing was off limits for rebellion.
Now those attitudes and actions weren't new. That problem began with our first parents in the Garden of Eden.
Ever since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, every human being has been born with a desire to go their own way and to decide who will chart their path through life.
Questions about authority existed in Jesus day too. And in today's text, Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders about his authority.
His actions challenged and disrupted the system of authority they had, and they did not appreciate that.
So listen carefully as I read the Scriptures and discuss the question of authority.
Here are the Holy Spirit inspired words of Mark 11:27, 33.
Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders came to him. And they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority to do these things?
But Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you a question. Then answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?
Answer me.
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why did you not then believe him? But if we say from men.
They feared the people, for everyone counted John to have been a Prophet. Indeed.
So they answered and said to Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
In this text, uh, Jesus provides several essential answers to questions of authority as he interacted with these Jewish religious leaders.
The first answer to the question of authority is the foundation of authority.
Our text opens with Jesus and, uh, the disciples walking in the temple. And suddenly the elders and the chief priests appear, and they block their way. They had a question they wanted Jesus to answer. Actually two questions. By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority to do them? You see, they saw themselves as having the authority to interpret the law of Moses.
And based on that position, this was their official inquiry.
Now, in Judaism, all authoritative teaching required previous authorization. In other words, your teaching rested on your teacher's authority. That was the highest court in Jewish life.
Now you can understand why they asked him this question.
As it's used here, the word authority contains the idea of both, right?
That is the authorization to make the decisions and might, the ability then to enforce those decisions. So let's explore these questions. First of all, they ask, what is the basis of your authority? Where does it come from?
Now, that's a good question.
What about you? Where does your authority come from? Well, uh, maybe you think you don't have any. However, if you are a follower of Christ, you have authority based on Jesus commission to all his disciples in Matthew 28:18.
But ultimately, all authority rests in God. Listen to Isaiah 45:5, I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you, though you have not known me. That they may know from the sun's rising to its setting that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things. And so the Creator has absolute authority over what he creates.
Jesus demonstrated his authority by claiming the right to forgive sin. In Mark 2:10, he told the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven you. Now, because the leaders rejected his authority, they accused him of speaking blasphemy. Jesus also exercised his authority in granting salvation.
In the home of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus said to the woman who anointed him, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
And finally, Jesus has full authority over life and death. In John 10, 17, 18, he said, Therefore, my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may retake it. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it back.
One thing Jesus never did was to request permission from the Jewish leaders for his teaching and healing. And that infuriated them because it indicated Jesus disdain for them. And if you think disdain is too harsh a word, then read Matthew, chapter 23, a whole chapter of scathing rebuke against the religious leaders for their hypocrisy.
The foundation of Jesus authority, in fact of all authority, is God the Father. And this leads us to the answer to the second question.
The next answer is the delegation of authority.
And so their second question was, who gave you the authority to do these things?
Now, Jesus could have simply ignored their question. He had already given them extraordinary proof of who he was.
The elders did get one thing right. They knew that authority must be given because no human being has ultimate authority.
The only ones who don't accept that fact are dictators and tyrants.
And so in response to their question, Jesus said, okay, I will also ask you a question, and then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
And then he said to them, the baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?
Answer me.
To rephrase Jesus question, we could say it this, where did John get his authority from heaven or from men?
Jesus reference to John's baptism encompassed John's whole ministry, not just that one aspect of baptism.
And notice too, that Jesus demanded an answer his counter question. And his demand implies that he had authority over the Sanhedrin, which he did.
And so picture these men who had stepped forward to confront Jesus. And now they go off to the side and huddle in a group to decide how they're going to answer Jesus questions.
Their brief conference revealed that they were forced to choose between two equally undesirable alternatives.
Because if they admitted that John's ministry was from heaven, they knew what Jesus would say. Why didn't you believe him?
If they accepted John's ministry as being authentic, then they would be forced to acknowledge Jesus ministry as the same because John had personally sanctioned Jesus ministry by baptizing him.
However, if they said John's ministry was from men, then they were going to be in trouble with the crowds of people because the people were convinced that John was a prophet who spoke with divine authority.
The elders and Herod were afraid of John, even though he was dead by this time, his martyrdom had deepened his power over the people, and disrespect toward him might end up causing A riot.
Jesus here gives us an example of taking the wise in their own cunning.
He knew John was held in high esteem among the people, and he saw that if they gave any answer at all, they must convict themselves.
The elders also realized this when they began to reflect on the question.
And so what did they do? They took the easy way out. They said, we do not know.
Which really wasn't true, by the way. And that leads us to our final answer regarding authority. The final answer to the question of authority is the determination of authority.
We do not know. Now, wait a minute. These men are the religious authorities. They're responsible for evaluating the claims of anyone who professes to be a prophet. They're the gatekeepers of the entire religion. But they knew that if they acknowledged the divine origins of John's ministry, then they would have to accept those exact divine origins of Jesus ministry as well. And they were not prepared to do that. And so they said, we don't know. What they should have said was, we will not tell, for we will not have this man for our Messiah.
If we acknowledge John as his forerunner, then we must receive Jesus as the Christ. Their dishonest reply was an attempt to escape the trap they had fallen into when they challenged Jesus authority.
Their refusal to take a stand on John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Jesus, absolved Jesus of the need to give a reply.
But as we will see, Jesus has no notion of letting them avoid the issue. The opening verses of Chapter 12 are aimed squarely at them, and we will look at those in our next episode.
In response to their evasive answer, Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Because the religious leaders were unwilling to acknowledge the authority of John's ministry, Jesus refused their attempt to determine the source of his authority.
So what does all this mean for you and me?
By what authority do you do these things? That was the question. It is the supreme question that every person faces. Every unbeliever faces it. And you are in that position today. If you have not submitted your will to Jesus, you have not yet fallen on your face before him and embraced him as your Savior and Lord.
Why? Because you doubt his authority.
You may be thinking, by what authority does he command me to repent, um, of my sins and come to him?
He does that by the authority given to him by God himself.
God the Father, as I said, is the foundation of all authority. That is a fact you cannot change, but you can ignore it at your own risk.
The Father has delegated all authority to his Son. The Lord Jesus Christ.
Unlike the religious leaders who criticized him, other human beings didn't establish Jesus authority.
His demand that they answer his question expressed that he was in control.
The elders refusal to decide on Jesus authority cut them off from the only source of salvation. Until you acknowledge Jesus authority, He is not obligated to answer your questions either.
The proof, the evidence of his authority, it's all there. You can accept it or reject it, but you cannot legitimately deny it. And you can't escape it either. The question Pilate raised when confronting the Jewish crowd at uh, Jesus trial is still valid today.
What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?
That is the question that you too must answer.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Thanks jmarc for breaking this interesting conversation down. I appreciate the ending. Make it personal. The Pharisees had enough proof they didn't believe because they didn't want to. Today, not much has changed. All authority still belongs to Jesus. Some deny it and others acknowledge it and serve Jesus with all they have. As uh, J. Mark said, there are only two options you you can accept it or reject it. There's no middle ground.
Thanks for listening and if you have any questions or comments from this teaching, we'd love to hear it. Our email address is hopeheraldsofhope.org and our website is heraldsofhope.org There you will find Contact us under the Partner tab on the top right. Click on that to message us directly. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
We have a few conversations like this one where the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with his words. This was a futile effort and he always knew what they were up to. If only they would have recognized him as the Messiah and acknowledged him as their Savior. They made their choice.
Now the decision is ours. How will you respond to the authority of Jesus?
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Sa.
