So we're gonna be in Mark chapter 11 again and I'm gonna back up just a little bit because it's there's sort of a connection between what we looked at last week and Jesus is teaching on prayer and Faith and forgiveness and if we have time we'll move into the next subject in that chapter, which is authority Jesus is authority But let me pray for the word Our Father, I pause before I read your word to acknowledge in your presence that we're about to take a journey into the very word of God. And Lord, we know your word is powerful and mighty. Lord, it's truth. And Lord, we're just inundated by the world around us with lies. So Father, we pray that you do the work of aligning us to the truth of your word. And for that, Lord, we are grateful. In Jesus' name, amen. So let me read Mark 11, and I'm gonna begin in verse 20 and read it straight down through to 26. And then we'll talk here about prayer. That's the subject Jesus is dealing with. Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. So Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him. that your father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses." Thus far the reading of God's word. So I won't re-teach what we looked at last week, but Jesus curses the fig tree that had leaves, had no fruit. And we talked about how that was really a picture of Israel, probably more specifically to the Jewish leadership of Israel. that really had the looks of outward religion, but didn't have the fruit of true righteousness. And Jesus is going to continue on that theme as he continues through this Passion Week. And we'll talk about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which we know took place in 70 AD. So in light of that faithlessness that Jesus is teaching about and dealing with, Peter is amazed that this fig tree actually withered from the root on up, completely destroyed, because Jesus had cursed it, Peter said. And Jesus uses this as a springboard to teach on prayer, but he begins with faith. And he says, to begin with, he turns to them, and he says to them, right? But he says, have faith in God. Have faith in God. Trusting God, who is omnipotent, all-powerful, almighty, holy. Psalm 62.8 says, trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Trust in God. When I was studying this, and I thought about that, because before Jesus launches into prayer, he just makes the simple statement, have faith in God. And then he's going to talk about what God can accomplish through the prayers of his saints, who pray in faith and also forgive others and all that. We'll look at that. But he begins with simply, have faith in God. And that's where prayer really begins, doesn't it? I mean, not only does the Bible tell us that we have to know God, and I would say we have to know God savingly, because the only relationship of real true knowledge we can have is through Jesus Christ. And to know him as he is, as all-powerful. And then when we come up against situations, which is really the heart of what he's talking about, where we really don't see how we could possibly prevail. We don't really have any idea what to do. We can turn to the Lord Omnipotent and seek the resources that only He has, but we have to come to Him in faith, have faith in God. And when I was studying this, I was thinking of an Old Testament story that I've probably brought up many times over the years, but it still speaks to me. And this is in 2 Chronicles. I won't read the whole of it because of the time we have, but in 2 Chronicles 10, Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir are coming against Judah. And they're coming with incredible forces. And there's no way that the King Jehoshaphat can really do anything. He doesn't have the wherewithal. He doesn't have the resources. He doesn't have the troops. He knows there's no way they can really defeat this enemy that's coming in upon him. And when you read that story in chapter 20 of 2 Chronicles, beginning in verse 5, It says, then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand, is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you? Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever?" In other words, he's just simply recounting in front of the people who God is. We have circumstances that come up in our lives. You hear the bad news from the doctor, or whatever the circumstance is, and you know it's bigger than you. You can't handle it. And that's exactly what Jehoshaphat is dealing with there. So he begins to recount who God is, and all of his power, all of his majesty, and all that he has done on behalf of Israel. And it's a healthy thing for us to look back on our own lives, now that we've lived a while, and think of how many times God has delivered you out of different issues and problems and needs you had, because you turned to Him in faith and prayer. And I always thought Jehoshaphat's prayer, that I'm about to read, is just one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible, when you're up against something and you don't have a clue how to handle it, it's beyond you. So when you look at verse 12 of 2 Chronicles chapter 20, here's his prayer. He says, O our God, will you not judge them? And this is what he says, For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do. But our eyes are upon you. always thought, what a great prayer to confess to God, I don't have the resources, I don't have the strength, I don't even know how to deal with this mess, I don't have a clue, I don't even know what to do, I don't have the power, I don't have the wherewithal, I haven't thought through it, I don't have a great plan, but my eye's on you. Will you deliver us, O God? And if you know that story, and I won't read it from the text, but if you know the story, God basically says, he raises up a prophet to speak to the king who says, the battle belongs to the Lord. I mean, he completely turned this whole thing over to the Lord. Okay, now the Lord takes it. He says, the battle belongs to the Lord. And if you know that story, he brings sort of a spirit of dissent within these three groups that are coming in against him, and they all turn on each other. And so Jehoshaphat, who doesn't even know that's going on, the armies defeat themselves. And so Jehoshaphat, not knowing what to do, gets together people to go worship Yahweh, the living Lord, and they go out and sing hymns, and they go into the battlefield and the army's already destroyed. God took care of it. So it's just a beautiful story, and I can see why Jesus would start all this with saying, let's start with this, have faith in God. Have faith in God. And then Jesus gets into the subject of moving mountains. Moving mountains. You know, if you have faith, you say to this mountain, you know, throw yourself into the sea, it'll do what you said. I mean, Jesus is talking about moving mountains here. Karen and I, last week, I think, it might have been the week before, we went out to lunch over to the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs. And they didn't have the main restaurant open, so they took us to that little pub area. And we went over for lunch. And we were sitting there. And just by providence, we happened to get to this booth that had a painting on the wall. It was like a drawing. And I said, that's a view of Jerusalem. And I looked at it, I couldn't really read the writing, it was kind of small, but I said, that's the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. So Kara gets out her reading glasses, she gets up there and she goes, it says it's the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. I said, that's amazing. Well, I tell you that R.C. Sproul, in his commentary, is of the opinion that Jesus, as he's teaching on this and talking about, you know, saying to this mountain, throw yourself into the sea and moving mountains, that he's looking at that view. And as he's looking at that spectacular view, they would have seen the Herod's the barricade that Herod had built. But when Herod had built the barracks there in that area, he had moved a hill of dirt using slaves to build that foundation up so he could build what he had to build there. And it sprawls of the opinion that Jesus and his disciples would have known that. He was sort of using that as an illustration Not so much that if I would tell the mountain that we crossed to get to Berkeley Springs to cast itself into the sea, that it's going to do that. But it's a poignant way to say that you can do great and mighty things through the power of prayer. is really what Jesus is trying to convey here. John MacArthur, in his commentary, says, this expression was related to a common metaphor of that day, quote, rooter up of mountains, unquote, which was used in Jewish literature of great rabbis and spiritual leaders who could solve difficult problems and seemingly do the impossible. Obviously, Jesus didn't literally uproot mountains. In fact, He refused to do such spectacular miracles for the unbelieving Jewish leaders. Jesus' point is that if believers sincerely trust in God, truly realize the unlimited power that's available through such faith in Him, they will see His mighty powers at work. And I believe that's exactly what Jesus is teaching. James Brooke, in his commentary, says, Mark evidently was saying, despite the cursing of the fig tree, which represented Israel, continue to trust in God, because faith and prayer are not at the temple, or in the temple, they're now the way directly to God. Don't put your faith in the temple, put your faith in God. Because that temple is going to be destroyed, quite honestly. This verse came to mind, Hebrews 10 verse 19, where it says, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, And the teacher here, the writer of Hebrews, is saying, it used to be that the high priest, once a year, would go into the holiest, the Holy of Holies, and only on Yom Kippur, only on the Day of Atonement, to bring the blood. And now, the writer of Hebrews says, you have direct access into that Holy of Holies through the veil, which is the body of Jesus. In other words, through his cross, because of his atonement in Jesus' name, we can approach the throne of God directly in Jesus. And that's an incredible thought, if you think about it. That your prayers are heard because of the blood of Jesus Christ. So Jesus says, and this is kind of a difficult passage, right? Believe that you will receive these things and you receive them. And actually, the way Jesus puts this, he says, Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." So you could take a single verse like that and try to build your whole theology of prayer, and that would be a dreadful mistake, because Jesus taught a lot about prayer throughout the scriptures. You have some people who have perverted their theology of prayer. into the name it, claim it group, or if you just believe it, you have it. There's been people who have been diagnosed with medical conditions who prayed for a healing and then believed the healing happened. Even when the doctors did a scan and said, sir, your disease is still here. We can treat this. And then thinking that that would be an act of unbelief, say, no, I'm not going to go through that treatment because I'm healed. I don't care what your scanner says. I'm believing. And if I believe, then I am healed. That's not what Jesus is teaching here. You have to look at the whole totality of Scripture to build a good theology of anything, and here to build a good theology on prayer. So we are told in Scripture that if we pray in the will of God, If we pray in the will of God, we can confidently know that God will answer that prayer in the affirmative. 1 John 5.14 says, now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything, According to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. And this is the same John who's here being taught by Jesus and hearing what Jesus is teaching. He understood it to be that if we pray in the will of God, in the will of Jesus Christ, Mark 14, 36, Jesus says, and this is a well-known passage, but Jesus says, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. You know that passage. And he says, but nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. And that should always be our disposition when we pray to God, because we don't know what's good. We think we do. We think we've got it all figured out. We're like, Lord, I think I'm supposed to be praying in a specific direction, and I'm coming to you confidently and in faith, knowing that you can do this, and you're all powerful. But I want your will to be done. Because your will is perfect, and my ideas are not always so perfect. And so it's right for us to rest in, like I always say, in God's goodness, knowing He'll do what's right, if we just rest in Him and ask His will to be done. John 12, Jesus says, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? And Jesus is thinking about the cross that's before him. Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. In other words, should that be my prayer? Is what Jesus is teaching here. Should that be my prayer? And then he says, but for this purpose I came to this hour. And now he prays, and he's teaching us something here. Should I say, save me from this hour? No, that this purpose I came to this hour. And then listen to his prayer. He says, Father, glorify your name. And then a voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Now that's good prayer. That's the right prayer. You know, Lord, there's a painful thing in front of me. I'd like to avoid it. I don't know if that's your will. I don't know if you're going to teach me through the storm. I don't know. But whatever befalls, whether you allow me to avoid the storm or go through the storm, I pray you'd be with me and I pray that you would use this to glorify your name. To glorify your name. That's a good prayer. That's a prayer that God will answer, that He will glorify His name. I both have glorified it and I'll glorify it again. And here's another teaching you're familiar with, but it fits into our study here of prayer, that Jesus teaches not only that we're to pray in the will of the Father, but we're to abide in Him, in Jesus. And this is the context of the teaching of Jesus being the vine, where he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. That's the subject that we looked at last week, that God expects us to bear fruit. And then He says, "...for without Me you can do nothing." Nothing of true fruit bearing that would glorify God. Apart from Christ, we can't do that. He says, as he continues, if anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them, and they throw them in the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it should be done for you. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. And you see the context of us being in Christ, a close relationship with our Savior, having His words abide in us, we're filled with the Word of God, and we're asking things in line with the will of God, because we have the Word of God, and we're asking things of God that will help us to bear good, righteous fruit. And Jesus says, when that happens, your father's glorified because now you're producing much fruit. And that should really help us as we think what kind of things we should be praying about in the will of the Father. In that passage, James Montgomery Boyce comments and says, these are the two great spheres of blessings for those who abide in Christ. Fruitfulness and the privilege of answered prayer. It is towards that divinely appointed sphere of operations that each who belongs to Christ should aspire, right? To abide in Christ, to produce fruits that glorify the Father. Those are the kind of prayers God will answer in the affirmative. And then Jesus ties our prayer life to forgiveness, doesn't he? He says, whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses. And I've taught on this many times, and it's necessary for me that I come back to this subject over and over and over again. And I'm sure it's necessary for you as well. One thing, and there's about four or five things I want to point out about this. One is the Bible very clearly teaches us that the realm of vengeance is not ours. That's turf we're not allowed to stand on. I am not allowed to be a vigilante. I'm not allowed to take vengeance against somebody who's wronged me or sinned against me. I mean, it's very clear, and there's a lot of passages I could read to you, but this is Romans chapter 12, verse 17. It says, Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. And then verse 19 of that chapter says, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it's written, vengeance is mine I will repay, says the Lord." To me, I always say, that's God telling me, hey, hands off, vengeance is mine. If there's really wrath to be poured out, that's God's business. My business is not pouring out vengeance on anybody. So that's off the table for us if somebody sinned against us. And in that subject, or that category of forgiveness, because it's a complicated subject, for us to be in close relationship with anybody... I mean, you could have a flippant, casual relationship where you just say hi to the guy on the street once a week and never really get to know the person. That's easy enough. But if you have a close, abiding relationship with another human being, this subject of forgiveness is going to come up. If any of you have been married for any length of time, this subject of forgiveness is going to come up because we offend each other. We say things we shouldn't. We just, you know, Karen and I sometimes get on each other's nerves and we have to come together and forgive one another and restore the relationship. And so the Bible is full of wisdom on how to do that. If somebody has wronged me or sinned against me, no matter what else, I can always basically wish God's best on them. I can turn that matter over to the Lord. Even if I haven't reconciled with that individual, I can come before the Father, say, Lord, he's wronged me, she's wronged me. But one, I carry no vengeance over this. Two, I just turn this over to you. And three, I want to be restored to that individual. Help me to do that. Help me to figure out what to say and how to enter into a dialogue with this person that we can be restored in a relationship. But I can always just wish God's best on somebody, even if we're not reconciled. You've probably done that. I've done that. Or if somebody's like, they've wronged you, and they're not seeking forgiveness, they stay in that position, and you can't really be reconciled because of that. But you can say, look, I don't wish any harm on you at all. I pray that God's blessings on you. I pray that God's at work in your life. And just turn it completely over to God. And again, Scripture to back that up, Romans 12 verse 20, Says, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And commentators are all over the place with what that means, to heap coals on their head. It could be that as you're treating them with dignity and respect and doing good to them, even though they had done you some form of evil, that they come under conviction of some sort. It very well could be that. And I've got an Old Testament story to read you. There's another great Old Testament story where Elisha is ministering for God. He's God's prophet. And the Syrian raiders. are coming in to do harm. And they're a wicked group of people, and they're strong and mighty force. And so Elisha prays to God against these Syrian raiders, and just basically says, God, blind them. And God strikes them all blind. They're all completely blind. And then Elijah goes to them, and they don't know what to do. They're groping around. And Elisha says, follow me. I'll lead you to where you to go. And they follow Elisha, and he leads them right into the hands of the king of Israel. That's what he does. And so I'll pick up the story at that point. So in 2 Kings chapter 6, verse 20, it says, so it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, Open the eyes of these men, that they may see.' And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and they were inside Samaria." My translation has a big exclamation mark. They were not happy about that. Now, when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elijah, now this is a phrase of respect. He calls Elijah my father. So the king of Israel says, my father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? But he answered, you shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you've taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master. Then he prepared a great feast for them. And after they ate and drank, he sent them away to their master. And how did that turn out? It says, so the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. And I don't know if they came under some kind of a guilt or how that worked. But here they were coming to do murder. They had murderous intent. And they're received by their enemy, who now sets up a feast for them, feeds them, gives them a drink, and sends them on their way unharmed. And they never came back to terrorize Israel again. It's kind of an interesting story. And that's really tying into what the Bible's telling us in Romans chapter 12. So I mentioned reconciliation. We can't always be reconciled with people. And that's a painful thing, because we want to be reconciled with everybody. Reconciliation takes two parties. For two people to be in agreement, to come together, to work out their problems and differences, and be brought back together. We should understand that, because we've been reconciled to God and Jesus Christ. And we were the offending party. And Jesus reconciled us back to God. So it says like in Romans 12, 18, if it's possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. In other words, the problem with non-reconciliation shouldn't be with me. I should be open to reconciliation, open to coming to the table, open to working things out, open to forgiveness and turning things over to God. So as much as it's up to me, the Bible says, I'm to live at peace with all men. But Luke 17, verse 3, Jesus teaches, take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, Forgive him. And I think it's in that repentance of sin against an individual that you really have an open channel now for reconciliation. And I've had to apologize to people. I've had to apologize to people for what I've said in the pulpit before. I wasn't thinking, and I said something from the pulpit. And somebody called me and said, I'm so upset with you. And I had to drive in my car over to so-and-so's house and say, I did not even know what your situation was. I wasn't saying that about you specifically. I'm so sorry if I've offended you. And it opened the channel for that individual to say, well, I know you didn't mean it. I was just a little upset at the time. And we reconciled. And you know, you've reconciled with people before. We should always be open to that. Matthew 19.9, Jesus says, and I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. Whoever marries her whose divorce commits adultery. What they call, the theologians and Christians call the exception clause. is that Jesus, in that situation in a marriage where the hurt has been so deep that it was actually sexual immorality within the marriage, that Jesus recognizes that and says at times, it doesn't mean I wish ill to that individual or in that situation, but that you might not be able to be reconciled. That that might be the dissolving of that marriage because the pain is so deep that you might not reconcile. But that doesn't mean you have the right to have ill intent and thoughts and vengeance against that person. That's, you know, the other subjects that we covered. Last little thing here is that forgiveness doesn't mean all the consequences of the sin go away. And I'm thinking of a situation as an example. I was contacted by the FBI this week. I got to go down and give testimony in front of the grand jury because of somebody who stole something. And so I have to go explain what I know about the situation. But I've already forgiven that individual. I knew they did it. And I've already forgiven them. I don't hold anything against them. I'm praying for them. I pray God's best for them. I hope they get right with God. But when they're brought to the point where they have to make restitution, the individual shouldn't say, but I thought you forgave me. It's like, yeah, now you got to pay the money back. That's how that works. I mean, you still have to pay. It doesn't mean I don't forgive you, but it doesn't take away all the kind. Now, we can forgive people outright. You could have somebody steal your lawnmower, and you forgive them, and they lost it or it got destroyed. You just go, you know what? You don't have to pay me back. I forgive you. I cover it. It's done. But it's not always the best thing to take away the consequences. I learned a lot of lessons in my spiritual life by dealing with consequences of what I've gone through in my life. So our Lord taught us to pray this way, and William Hendrickson picks up on this. This is out of his commentary. He says, this passage strongly reminds one of the fifth petition of the Lord's prayer. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. In Matthew 6.14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. There is absolutely no reason why Jesus could not have repeated here and now, in a slightly different form, what he had taught the disciples and the people in general on a previous occasion. This all the more so because by nature, the sinner is disinclined to forgive. He has to be reminded of this again and again." And when I read that in Hendrickson, I said, amen and amen. OK, I've got to confess something here. I don't know what it's like when you get in your squabbles. But I know sometimes, my wife's much higher on the spiritual plane than I am, but sometimes we get on each other's nerves and we got in a little spat or whatever. And she apologizes. I don't think it's good. She can't do her census. She knows it's all her fault. No, I'm just kidding. But she apologizes. And I'll tell you, because I'm a sinner, I think for a second, I don't think I'm ready to forgive you quite yet. Isn't that horrible? The Bible doesn't give us any platitude to do that. We're trying to work things out. I have to be open to the reconciliation to say, you know what? I know you didn't mean it like that. And I'm a little on edge today. And I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. And you know how you do that. And you reconcile the relationship. But you probably know this happens at times. Something happened, and you're just thinking, I don't know if I'm quite ready to forgive you yet. Maybe I'll let you sleep on the couch tonight, kind of a thing. You know, that's just, that's no word scripture we're supposed to do that. We should be almost like the prodigal son where the father's running to be reconciled to the son. That's the attitude we should have when it comes to, you know, being reconciled with one another. One last verse, then we'll move on. In Matthew 18, where Peter says to Jesus, how often shall my brothers sin against me, and I forgive them up to seven times? And Jesus said, no, not up to seven times, 70 times seven. In other words, an endless amount of times. You need to be reconciled with one another. So authority and submission. Jesus says, this is picking up the story in verse 27 of Mark 11, says, Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes, 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 ask you one 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 then did you not believe him? But if we say from men, they feared the people, for all 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." Jesus' authority is questioned. I'm sure this is not just the various teachings and things he's done to upset them, but probably more specifically his recent cleansing of the temple. Who told you you're allowed to do this? What authority do you have for this? The Greek word, which I won't even try to pronounce, or maybe I will. I'm going to say it's exousia, and you can look up a Greek person and find out I said that wrong. But it's usually translated throughout the Bible as authority, or sometimes it's translated as power. But mostly it's authority. The English word authority in my Webster's is defined as power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior. And that's a pretty good definition, I think. And so you see that throughout the scriptures, the word authority being used. Jude 1.25 at the end of that book says, and this is the NIV, says, to the only God and Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forever. Amen. Colossians 2.10 says that we as Christians, you are complete in Him, meaning Christ, who is the head of all principality and power. There is translated power. Romans 13.1 tells us that we're to be subject to the governing authorities. Why? Because there is no authority except from God. and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. God has supreme authority over everything. Any authority that God has vested to somebody has come because it's his authority, and now you're given a certain realm of authority, and here he's talking about the governing officials. In Ephesians 1, Paul goes into great detail. He says in verse 19, he wants us to know what the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. And then he describes that seat. far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He put all things under his feet, gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." 1 Peter 3, speaking of Jesus Christ, says, "...he has gone into heaven at the right hand..." He's at the right hand of God. "...angels and authorities and powers, having been made subject to him." So Jesus, in the Gospels, actually gives authority to his disciples. It says in Mark 6-7, "...he called the twelve to himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power." The NIV translates that, gave them authority over unclean spirits. And then in the Great Commission, you know that so well, Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And then he gives the authority to the disciples, to the church, and says that, you know, under his authority, he empowers us to go forth. He says, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. 2 Corinthians 13.10 says, Therefore I write these things being absent, the Apostle Paul says, lest, being present, I should use sharpness according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification. Not for destruction, Paul says. Jesus gave me authority as an apostle to edify the church. So Jesus is asked, where is this authority coming from? Where do you derive this authority? Jesus' answer is a question, right? Let me ask you this. Where did John's baptism come from? What he's saying is, where did John get his authority, is what he's asking. And the answer to that will answer where Jesus got his authority. Because John the Baptist received his authority directly from God Almighty. And I can go back and read it for you, but in the birth narratives in Luke, when John's father is ministering at the temple, Zacharias, an angel comes to him to tell him that his son will be named John, and his son was uniquely called by God to be God's prophet. He was to be filled with the spirit from the womb. He was called and empowered and authorized by God Almighty, the majesty of God. Authorized. And this is conveyed to Zacharias by the angel. So where did Jesus get his authority? Well, if you read the birth narratives, for one, Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. He's God. Secondly, the angel appears to Mary and again conveys that by the instruction of God, that Jesus was authorized to be the son who would be named Jesus. He'll be great, he'll be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He'll reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom, there will be no end. Jesus had said in John 12.49, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command that I should say, and what I should speak. Matthew 28, I just read to you. He says that all authority had been given to him. So in the relationship between Father and Son and Holy Spirit, the Father conveys to the Son all authority. All authority is with the Son, given by the Father. J.D. Jones on this says, As to the source of the authority, Jesus derived his right to speak and act as he did from God. It was his Father who had commissioned him. It was the Father's works he did. It was from his Father he had received his commandments. Priests and elders thought that they were the source of preaching and teaching authority. They claimed that no one had the right to teach or speak unless he had received his orders from them. Jesus had asked for no authorization from them. He had never been humanly ordained to this work. From the priestly point of view, he was not in orders. He was a mere layman. But Christ had no need of commission from priests or elders. He derived his authority from a higher source. He was commissioned by the Most High. His right to preach and teach was that the Father had sent him. And they understood something of that. And as the Bible says in Romans chapter one, they suppressed that truth in unrighteousness. Jesus had supreme authority to do everything that he was doing. And if that was the case, then his authority was not to be questioned. His authority was to be submitted to. And I know a lot of the evangelism that goes on in our days, and you've done evangelism, I've done evangelism. A lot of it in the last 20, 30 years has been going to people and saying, hey, Jesus loves you. Jesus has a great plan for your life. Things will go better, how things go on for you, things will go so much more swimmingly for you if you give your life over to Jesus. He really loves you. But if you read, and I re-read the whole Book of Acts yesterday, if you read the Book of Acts and you read the sermons in the Book of Acts, that's not how they preached. What they preached was, you have broken God's law, which is His authority, so you've basically rebelled, you're rebels against the living God, so you're guilty before Him, and they always come as a command. I'll read you a couple of these. Like to the Jews, primarily, as Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost, he brings them under conviction. He says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. In other words, they came under conviction. They said to Peter, the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, Repent. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." That wasn't a suggestion. That wasn't just simply Jesus loves you, has a plan for your life. It's like you're in deep weeds. You've rebelled against the living God. You're under the wrath of God. And you need to repent and embrace Christ by faith. That's a command. When Paul preaches to the Gentiles in Athens, in Acts 17, in verse 30, he's talking about, and I've been there, I was up on Mars Hill. And when you're up on Mars Hill, you can still see the ruins of all these statues to these false deities all around you. Right behind you is the big mount of the... I can't remember who the goddess was up there that they worship. And you look down below, you can see that. They're all around you. And Paul is preaching that message, surrounded by this. And he says to the crowd, truly, talking about making false deities out of stone and wood, he says, truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. And he's given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead." That was his message. He didn't say, hey, think about this, Jesus sure would like to have you in his club. It was none of that. It was, you are guilty before a holy God, and maybe so far God hasn't poured out his wrath on you people, but he is now commanding you to repent and to put your faith in Jesus Christ. It comes by command. because it's coming by the authority of God Himself. It's God's gospel. It's His authority. His law has been broken. We're guilty because of that. And the law is used as that schoolmaster, that tutor, to lead us to Jesus Christ, that we might cling to Christ and find salvation in His cross. So it is the universal command to repent and embrace Christ. 1 Samuel 15.23, speaking of what God says about people's rebellion. And that's what it is. Sin is rebellion against God's authority. It says, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he says to Saul. He also has rejected you from being king. But look what he says about rebellion. It's as the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness, just being stubborn about the authority of God over our lives to tell us what we can and cannot do. He says even stubbornness, it's as iniquity. It's like idolatry. Why? Because something else is giving you direction, what you can do and what you can't do. And it's not the authority of God Almighty, who alone holds all authority. So our task, in closing, is in love, because we're in the same boat as everybody else. We're rebels against a holy God who somebody shared the gospel with. And you know, whenever I preach outdoors, I always say, look, I'm no better than you. I'm no better than you, and you're no worse than me. I'm just telling you what the Bible says about our predicament together. And I go right to Romans 1, talk about God and His goodness and all He's done to provide for us. But the Bible says He heaps us up under the condemnation of judgment because we don't acknowledge Him as God. And we're not thankful. That's what the Bible says in Romans 1. We don't acknowledge Him as God. In other words, His sovereign authority. And we're not thankful. And so therefore God turned us over. And there's a way back. There's a path back to God. And His name is Jesus Christ. And you go right to the cross of what God had to do in Jesus Christ to deal with our sin. And Jesus had to go to that cross and die for our sin. And then gloriously be raised the third day for our justification. And deliver that. As you go out this week, I pray you find opportunity in a loving way. Let the Word of God be the thing that brings conviction. It doesn't have to be us. We can smile and be nice and polite and still share that truth without watering it down. So I pray you get opportunity to share that with somebody this week. And I pray that I also would have that opportunity. Let me pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for it instructing us regarding prayer and regarding authority. And Lord, we pray that you might give us opportunity this week to share the gospel with those that don't know you. Lord, that they might also find salvation. And the only name by which we might find salvation, the man Christ Jesus. And Lord, I thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Pronounce the blessing of the Lord on you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go to the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.